The countries of the Energy Community Treaty have diverse energy mixes, but hydropower has traditionally played a strong role in many of them. Albania is almost completely reliant on dams for its domestic electricity generation, followed by Georgia with an average of 80 per cent of electricity generated by hydropower and Montenegro with an average of 55 per cent.
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Background
The countries of the Energy Community Treaty have diverse energy mixes, but hydropower has traditionally played a strong role in many of them. Albania is almost completely reliant on dams for its domestic electricity generation, followed by Georgia with an average of 80 per cent of electricity generated by hydropower and Montenegro with an average of 55 per cent.
But what started as a strength is becoming a liability. More and more erratic rainfall is exposing how vulnerable hydropower is to climate change, while its damaging impacts on biodiversity, groundwater and sediment transportation are becoming better understood.
This has not stopped decision-makers’ zealous plans to develop the sector, including in countries like Ukraine hydropower has not traditionally played a major role. Decades-old projects are still being pushed against all economic and environmental logic, while a rash of small hydropower plants driven by feed-in tariff schemes has destroyed rivers and streams across southeast Europe.
The good news is that there are alternatives, with lower costs for the environment and also, increasingly, for the public purse, and that resistance to the unnecessary destruction of life-giving rivers is increasing day by day.
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Latest news
Skavica mega dam: Albanian court to scrutinise special law for U.S. contractor Bechtel
Press release | 21 September, 2023Nature conservation and human rights organisations have secured an important first milestone in the fight against the planned 210 MW Skavica hydropower plant in the Albanian municipalities of Kukës and Dibër.
Read moreChinese-built Dabar hydropower plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina set to destroy four Emerald and two Ramsar sites
Blog entry | 31 July, 2023If completed, the EUR 338 million project would violate a Recommendation of the Bern Convention No. 217 (2022) and leave tributaries of the Neretva river without water. People living in the Nevesinjsko karst field oppose resettlement and flooding of their houses and land.
Read moreBosnia and Herzegovina’s draft NECP: The good, the bad and the ugly
Blog entry | 20 July, 2023Bosnia and Herzegovina’s draft NECP finally looks to the future, plans no new fossil fuel power plants and significantly scales back unrealistic hydropower plans. But existing coal plants are to keep operating illegally and the draft is furtive about coal-to-biomass plans.
Read moreRelated publications
Declaration of local community in Kaishi to cancel contract for Georgian Khudoni dam
Advocacy letter | 9 March, 2016 | Download PDFIn this declaration, the community of Khaishi, a village in the mountains in north west Georgia, called for a the cancellation of the contract for the construction of the 700MW Khudoni dam. Khaishi residents demand the recognition of customary land rights and the inclusion of Svans into the decision-making over the project.
Briefing on Nenskra hydropower plant for the European Investment Bank
Briefing | 25 February, 2016 | Download PDFThe European Investment Bank (EIB) is in the early stage of assessing a loan for the 280 megawatt Nenskra hydropower plant, located on the Nenskra and Nakra rivers in the Caucasus mountain valleys inhabited by ethnic Svans. The poor quality assessment of the project, together with the neglect of the opinion of locals, threatens to aggravate the fading public acceptance of hydropower. With this project, the EIB and other potential international financiers have a chance to insist on changes to the imprudent course hydropower developments have taken in Georgia and to request tighter environmental and social regulations.
Nenskra hydropower plant, Georgia
Briefing | 2 February, 2016 | Download PDFFor the last decade, the government of Georgia has promoted hydropower as a way of tackling energy security and turning the country into a regional energy player. The EBRD has been one of the key catalysts of this hydro boom. Yet the presence of the EBRD and other international financial institutions has not been enough to ensure the development of comprehensive energy strategies, robust project assessments and meaningful public consultations. The potential for social and environmental problems is therefore prevalent. The Nenskra hydropower plant is yet another project that lacks the proper assessment and has failed to gain acceptance from the local communities.