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
Letter: European Commission should make use of its shareholder role in the EBRD
Advocacy letter | 28 February, 2012 | Download PDFA look at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s investments in the Ombla hydropower plant in Croatia and the Boskov Most plant in Macedonia reveals that the EU does not make full use of its shareholder role in the Bank and allows approval of the projects that contravene EU principles and standards. Read more on our blog:
Enquiry regarding the Natura 2000 assessment process of the Ombla hydropower plant
Advocacy letter | 27 February, 2012 | Download PDFMore information on the Ombla hydropower plant project is available on our website. The EBRD replied to our enquiry on March 1, 2012. Their answer can be downloaded as pdf.
Khudoni hydropower plant – a risky deal
Briefing | 21 November, 2011 | Download PDFThe proposed Khudoni hydro power plant poses the risk of an ecological disaster in one of the most amazing highland regions of Georgia. Additionally, the economic justification of the project is doubtful because the contract with the completely unknown, offshore Virgin Islands registered Georgian-Indian Company Transelectrica Ltd, is based on the BOO (Build-Own-Operate) principle that does not promise any significant income for the Georgian budget.