| Decentralized renewable energy can help to solve numerous local problems of energy supply, while respecting environmental commitments including the Kyoto Protocol. Despite the fact that small-hydro power projects generally contribute a small portion of most nations’ electricity needs, their importance often exceeds their size. The need for adequate access to energy and water will continue to be the primary developmental concern in the future. Small-hydro can also contribute to this urgent need in an affordable way in the less developed countries of this world. It helps to spur economic growth, stability, and sustainability. Small-hydro means utilizing a river’s potential without significant damming.
Small-hydro plants very often provide residual flows to reconstituted areas, sometimes creating an even higher ecologically balanced environment. Small-hydro power systems, well designed, blend with their surroundings and are in harmony with nature.
In European countries small-hydro is playing a major role, e. g. in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. As the EU’s target is to achieve 21 % of electricity generation from renewable sources by 2010, it is likely that interest in small-hydro will increase. |
