The good news: It is entirely possible to create hydropower without destroying nature. It is also the only thing that can be called sustainable and green, according to the EU. Now the EU has tightened the requirements for those who promise green energy to customers and investors: They must ensure a certain possibility for life in the rivers. Or, in EU language: The environmental target must be Good Ecological Potential (GØP). It costs to call oneself green: Skagerak Energi believes it will cost several tens of millions in the Kragerøvassdraget alone Photo: Skagerak Energi / Facsimile This minimum requirement is apparently not very ambitious. The power industry has nevertheless fought for several years to have it removed. Because the upgrade will cost. At the same time, hydropower has never made more money than now. Fish deaths in hydropower In several cases, news has told about the damage Norwegian hydropower causes to life in the rivers. Turbines that make renewable energy from the water, and mince food from the fish. Rivers that suddenly empty of water, so the fish get stranded and die. Not everything that is legal can be called green. In any case, not as long as the solutions exist, without being put to use. The EU has created strict rules for hydropower that will call itself green – called the taxonomy. And recently the minimum requirement was tightened. Must do everything possible – Hydropower must do absolutely everything possible, technically and ecologically, to ensure good ecological potential, says spokesman for the European Commission, Daniel Ferrie. This minimum requirement cannot be waived, according to Ferrie. – But what happens if the power producer fails to meet the requirement? – Well, then it doesn’t qualify for the taxonomy. It’s that simple, says Ferrie. This has major consequences for the Norwegian power industry. Norway has given hydropower more than 900 exemptions from the requirement of good ecological potential. Such hydropower can therefore no longer be called green. With so many “red” rivers, Norwegian hydropower can lose out in the competition for customers and investors, but now the Government has increased its ambitions27 new river stretches have been given targets to achieve the minimum green requirement Among them the Kragerøvassdraget in Vestfold and Telemark Here Skagerak Energi has five power plants in a row The power plants here has killed the salmon in the river, according to the Norwegian Environment Agency. They also affect the endangered eel. In the 70s it was still possible to catch wild salmon below the last power plant in the Kragerøvassdraget. But now it is completely gone. Photo: Per Ole Halvorsen / Private 2020: Eel felled by a power turbine in the Kragerøvassdraget Photo: Kragerøvassdraget landowners’ association / Private 2021: Eel felled by a power turbine in the Kragerøvassdraget Photo: Kragerøvassdraget’s landowners’ association / Private Both salmon and eels are on the red list of threatened species. But now the Government has adopted targets for good ecological potential here by 2033. Then Skagerak Energi must find solutions so that the fish can get past all the power plants alive, says the Norwegian Environment Agency. It will cost at least NOK 60 million, thinks communications manager Thor Bjørn Omnes. He will not promise that the measures will be implemented. – It is not up to us to decide that. There will be cooperation with the environmental authorities. Then we get to implement the measures that we agree on, says Omnes. – This is practically a dead waterway because of the power stations, says specialist adviser Per-Erik Schulze of the Nature Conservation Association. Photo: Veronica Westhrin / news At the top is the dam, which was built in 1907. The picture was taken in 2016. Photo: Dag Endre Opedal / Kraftmuseet At the bottom is the Kammerfoss power plant and gates for salmon and trout that want to go up the river. Photo: Veronica Westhrin / news – Actually, it’s sad that the EU has to tell Norway that we must take care of our waterways, says marine biologist Per-Erik Schulze of the Nature Conservation Association. – But when it first happens, of course we cheer for it. But – is it now so certain that the EU requirements are as the EU itself describes them? Skagerak Energi is not convinced. They instead refer to the industry association Fornybar Norge, which has created its own interpretation of the EU regulations. It says that all Norwegian hydropower that fulfills the Norwegian authorities’ permits and requirements will also fulfill the requirements in the taxonomy. Read the full response from the power company here: This is how Skagerak Energi responds The EU’s taxonomy is a new reporting framework, and is still being developed. Skagerak Kraft will base its taxonomy reporting on the guidelines and standards that exist for the industry. At the time of writing, it is Fornybar Norge’s guide, “Guide: Requirements in the taxonomy for hydropower”, which was published in November 2022, which is the industry standard for how hydropower should be reported. An assessment from Fornybar Norge’s supervisor is “that hydropower activity that is in accordance with the authorities’ permits and requirements is in accordance with the requirements of the water framework directive and thus also meets the taxonomy’s screening criteria”. Skagerak will follow developments closely and adapt to any specifications and clarifications with a view to interpretation of regulations in the future. We do not see it as our role to comment further on the European Commission’s guidance from December 2022, but would here refer to Renewable Norway. Skagerak will not bring forward the outcome of the processes to be carried out in the Kragerøvassdraget until 2033, both with regard to special legislation processing and the water regulations. The first step will be to investigate the matter in line with measures 5108-1022-M in Vann-Nett. It will then be up to the authorities to assess whether and, if so, what relevant measures should be taken. Skagerak would like to emphasize that it is up to the authorities and not us to assess whether salmon should be reintroduced into the watercourse or not. We want to cooperate with the authorities on further knowledge acquisition, and are positive to carry out good investigations in order to provide the best possible basis for decision-making in this matter. Comment from Renewable Norway The taxonomy is a complex legal instrument that is constantly evolving. Renewable Norway makes continuous assessments and is in good dialogue with the Norwegian authorities about how Norwegian hydropower can meet the criteria of the Water Framework Directive, and thus also of the taxonomy, in the best possible way. Hydropower has an important function as a source of renewable energy (substantial contribution to environmental target 1), and has a central role in securing energy supply to the Norwegian and European markets. This means that the authorities, in processing the necessary permits and approvals for power production, are obliged to take both environmental considerations into account and make societal assessments, including the duty to use resources efficiently. The Water Framework Directive requires that the work to improve the state of water is an ongoing process where the authorities must both ensure a constant improvement of the state of the water bodies, but also carry out cost-benefit assessments where, among other things, societal considerations can lead to the use of deferrals or MSM. Against this background, Energi Norge believes that hydropower activity that is in accordance with the authorities’ permits and requirements is in accordance with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive and thus also meets the taxonomy’s screening criteria. These are the environmental requirements for green hydropower “Mitigation measures include, where relevant and depending on the ecosystems naturally present in the affected water bodies: Measures to ensure downstream and upstream fish migration (such as fish friendly turbines, fish guidance structures, state-of- art fully functional fish passes, measures to stop or minimize operation and discharges during migration or spawning); Measures to ensure minimum ecological flow (including mitigation of rapid, short-term variations in flow or hydro-peaking operations) and sediment flow; Measures to protect or enhance habitats. The effectiveness of those measures is monitored in the context of the authorization or permit setting out the conditions aimed at achieving good status or potential of the affected water body.” Read more about the sustainability requirements of the European Commission Climate or nature – do we have to choose? That is why we are writing this case: Hydropower is renewable and helps the climate. But it also damages nature. Does it have to be like that? In a series of cases, we examine the climate benefit and nature loss of Norwegian hydropower. Here are some of them: Do you have input? Contact!
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Energy companies that want to call themselves green must spend millions to save fish in the rivers – news – Klima
