Expectations for the environmental adaptation of hydropower have been high, with hopes for an improved water environment, not least for threatened fish. Now hope has fallen in many directions.
“Getting difficult”
In the new proposal, for example, a target value of no more than 0.012 TWh of the river Ljungan’s total electricity production of 2.3 Twh is established, which must go to environmental measures. It’s not far enough, says Kenneth Ottosson, who works to improve the water environment in Ljungan.
– It will be difficult to get through measures that affect electricity production, he says.
“The government lowers the environmental requirements”
The Nature Conservation Association states that the new proposal will lead to environmental requirements being lowered in many watercourses.
– The government is lowering the bar for environmental requirements and this will affect many species and threatened fish stocks, says Beatrice Rindevall, chairperson of the Nature Conservation Association.
Today, hydropower is often controlled by old water judgments without much regard for the environment. The idea of environmental adaptation is to set modern environmental requirements for power production and is based on the EU’s water directive. Now the question is whether Sweden will live up to the requirements?
“Sweden must live up to the requirements”
Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari(L) has declined a recorded interview, but writes in an email to SVT:
“Sweden must live up to the requirements of the EU’s water directive. The government’s proposal will improve the conditions for the review to be both time-efficient and fair, so that we can get the environmental measures in place.”
“Step in the right direction”
The energy industry welcomes the government’s new arrangement.
– The government has identified many of the problems that have surrounded the re-examinations so far. The proposed solutions appear to be steps in the right direction, comments Johan Bladh, responsible for hydropower at Energiföretagen Sweden.
When asked if the government is not only dealing with the affairs of the power industry and power plant owners with the new proposal, Romina Pourmokhtari (L) answers:
“No, the Government is now ensuring that we get modern environmental conditions for hydropower, without the consequences for the electricity system becoming completely unacceptable. It is good for both the water environment and climate change.”
This is the environmental adaptation of hydropower
Power plants negatively affect aquatic environments and fish and plant species. The purpose of the national plan is that the reassessments should lead to both the greatest possible benefit for the water environment and an efficient national access to hydroelectricity.
In January 2019, the government tasked HaV, the Swedish Energy Agency and Svenska kraftnät to produce a proposal for a national plan for the review of hydropower. The plan was submitted to the government in October 2019.
Since then, the review has both been initiated in a number of water bodies and then postponed and paused several times by the current government. Now the government has put forward a new proposal in a memorandum that will be sent out for consultation until November 22. The environmental adaptation will then enter into force on 1 July 2025.
Many of the country’s hydropower plants lack modern environmental conditions, the permits have not been decided with the support of the Environmental Code and they are older than 40 years.
The biological diversity and ecosystems along the banks of the waterways benefit when various environmental improvement measures are taken at the hydropower plants. The highly threatened eel, salmon, sea trout and other fish species that need free migration routes and a restored aquatic environment can be positively affected.
Source: The Norwegian Sea and Water Authority