ESHA - European Small Hydropower Association, Renewable Energy House, Rue d’Arlon 63-67 B-1040, Brussels, Belgium, Tel: +32 2 546 19 45, Fax: +32 2 546 19 47, E-mail: info@esha.be

ESHA is founding member of EREC – European Renewable Energy Council

ESHA Newsletter May 2011

ESHA STAFF CHANGE

Ben Dewitte joined the Secretariat in December 2010 as the new Office & Project Assistant. Ben is a graduate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel with a Bachelor in Geography as well as holder of an MSc in Physical Geography from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. Ben is in charge of office administration and member requests as well as working on communications. One of his current tasks involves the improvement of IT infrastructure in order to facilitate efficiency in office management. ESHA is thrilled to have Ben as part of its team!

EDITORIAL

The last months have been marked by many noteworthy developments for our Association. New staff members, a reorganised Secretariat, new communications and advocacy activities as well as new membership and sponsorship services serve as tools with which ESHA pursues its aims and objectives.

The ESHA Executive Board at the

Renewable Energy House in Brussels

The European Sustainable Energy Week on the 11th to the 15th of April was also a very busy week for our association. Starting with the Executive and Governing Board meetings and the ESHA General Assembly, moving on to a successful seminar on “Small Hydro Going Smart” and a hydropower stakeholders networking cocktail, and ending with two project partners meetings for Stream Map and Hydro Action it seems needless to say that there was much opportunity to increase visibility for the small hydropower sector as well as to draw attention to ESHA members and their relevant activities.

In addition to these events, ESHA has on numerous occasions been invited to speak at international conferences in representation of the small hydropower sector. One of them was a live online presentation at Small Hydro 2011 in Vancouver (Canada).

The widespread and inexhaustive interest in hydropower witnessed by ESHA on a daily basis, serves to demonstrate that despite the fact that the sector faces many obstacles to its development, it also undeniably attracts great interest due to its properties as an efficient, clean and renewable energy source. ESHA strives to make sure that hydropower receives its fair share in the spotlight by providing expert input to media. Recent publications include interviews with ESHA Policy Officer, Lauha Fried, published in two online blogs (blogactiv.eu, thinkaboutit.eu) and articles in the European Energy Review, European Voice and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

In the policy section of this newsletter you can see the most important EU policy issues which ESHA is currently working on. The Water Framework Directive implementation remains ESHA’s top priority. The WFD Hydropower Workshop taking place on the 13th-14th of September in Brussels is the most important opportunity to make our key messages heard.

Finally, I would ask you to save the date for the upcoming Hidroenergia 2012 (23-26 May 2012) in Wrocław, Poland which is jointly organised by the Polish Association for SHP Development (TRMEW) and ESHA. New features are added to the traditional event schedule.

We thank all of you for your support and wish you an interesting read. Dirk Hendricks ESHA Secretary General

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IN THIS ISSUE:

ESHA staff change Page 1 Editorial Page 1 EU Project Briefing on

Hydro Action, Rural RES, Stream Map and CH2OICE Page 2

Welcome to new ESHA members and sponsors Page 3

EU Policy Briefing Page 3 EU Energy Roadmap 2050 Page 4 News from ARE Page 4 In brief: Hydropower

news from around the world Page 5

Hydro Agenda Page 5 Hydro Innovation: Members’

technology developments Page 6

PROJECT BRIEFING

ESHA - Hydroaction Seminar “Small Hydro Going Smart”

ESHA organised a seminar “Small Hydro Going Smart” as a part of the Hydroaction project. The seminar took place on 13 April 2011 at the Renewable Energy House in Brussels during the European Sustainable Energy Week. The results of the Hydroaction project which aims at improved turbine efficinecy were presented together with today’s hot topics on hydropower development including SHP & pumped storage contribution to smart grid, the curent status of hydropower in the EU-27 and future research needs of the hydropower sector.

Seminar presentations were made by leading hydropower experts from Alstom Pumped Storage, Andritz HYDRO, Studio Frosio and the National Technological Univeristy of Athens. A panel discussion was moderated by ESHA President, Marko Gospodjinački, focusing on the topic of: “What would be needed to improve hydropower’s contribution to Europe’s RES target?” Panel members included representatives from DG Energy and DG Research.

All presentations are available on the ESHA website. For further information on the seminar please contact Lauha Fried.

A successful Final Conference in Brussels marks the end of RuralRES

The conference which took place on the 28th of March 2011 at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels (Belgium) focused on "promoting the use of mini-wind and mini-hydro installations in rural and mountainous EU regions".

The conference included a presentation on the best-practice results collected during the project, a short session on use of the online training guides and concluded with a panel discussion on “How to boost training and investment of mini wind and hydro in rural regions”.

For a ZIP file of the conference proceedings please click here. For more information on the project please contact Ben Dewitte.

Launch of the first-ever comprehensive hydro database on the EU-27!

The HYDI Database covering key energy, market and policy data regarding the hydropower sector in the EU-27 was launched in February 2011. Information such as number of plants, installed capacity, generation, forecasts and potentials, support schemes and cost and prices are now freely accessible on the Stream Map website. ESHA led a media campaign together with a press release which was also disseminated at national levels by Stream Map project partners.

A project partners meeting was also held at the ESHA Headquarters at the Renewable Energy House (Brussels) on 14 April 2011. The second round of data collection has started in May with partners filling in gaps in the database and gathering the latest information on hydropower as well as forecasts for SHP development.

Work is also currently underway on a first-ever Roadmap for the Small Hydropower sector with recommendations for the future. In addition, a series of validation workshops for key stakeholders has

taken and will be taking place in the Member States.

For more information on the Stream Map please contact Lauha Fried.

The CH2OICE project, co-financed by the IEE programme, which lasted for two and a half years comes to a close in end of March 2011. The project was coordinated by Ambiente Italia with a consortium of partners from CIRF, WWF Italy, APER, Studio Frosio, LIMNOS, HSE, IPVO, SSHA, CLER, UPM, REC Slovakia and ESHA. A Final Conference on certification with active participation of ESHA members, took place on 25 February 2011 in Rome.

The CH2OICE project aimed at developing a technically and economically feasible methodology for European level certification for hydropower of high environmental standard, being coherent with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. This included developing an operational methodology, which was tested in Italy and Slovenia.

The lack of market and economic analysis of the system was the key reason for producers to be sceptical about CH2OICE being successful. The system has to be feasible for producers before they can be inetrested in it, i.e. the system has to be economically feasible and remain voluntary without adding more obstacles.

More details and deliverables of this project can be found on the CH2OICE project website at www.ch2oice.eu, For further information please contact Lauha Fried.

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The key objective is to map and refurbish historical water wheels/mills/lateral structure sites in the EU-27. Unrealized potential for economically feasible and environmentally sustainable small and micro hydropower (SHP) generation exists in the thousands of historic water wheels, mills and weir sites in the EU.

This project will identify the most relevant sites suitable for refurbishment and develop a market driven model for regional cooperatives with a community shares ownership business plan with profit from the sites available for further development of the area. The outcome of this project will be an all-inclusive replicable model consisting of financial, regulatory and technological recommendations. This will work as a grassroot level campaign for the improvement of social acceptance towards hydropower by bringing hydro closer to people.

For further information please contact Lauha Fried.

New IEE Proposal – Improving public acceptance for hydropower in the EU

ESHA, together with eight key partners, has submitted a new proposal within the framework of the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

and Hydropower which will take place on 13-14 September in Brussels.

ESHA will be actively participating in this workshop to give input from the sector where further guidance for the implementation is likely to follow as an outcome. The Commission is to finalise their assessment of the River Basin Management Plans and to publish a report on the WFD implementation based on the assessment later on this year.

Currently a Blue Print for EU’s Water Policy is also being prepared. The Blueprint will synthesise policy recommendations building on: 1) the assessment of the River Basin Management Plans 2) the review of the policy on Water Scarcity and Drought and 3) the assessment of the vulnerability of water resources to climate change and other man-made pressures. Several public consultations and studies will be carried out – one of them is a Fitness Check of EU Policy on freshwater resources.

The results of the Fitness Check will be integrated in the Blueprint, anticipated to be published in early 2012. ESHA has sent input and comments for the Fitness Check. A public consultation in the form of a stakeholder conference on the Fitness Check will be organised in September-November 2011 to review the preliminary assessments. The main milestone will be at the EU Water Conference in spring 2012 (in the context of Green Week), focusing on the problem description and the identification of policy options. The discussion of the Blueprint in the 2nd half of 2012 will focus on concrete policy proposals. The World Water Forum will take place in March 2012 in Marseille.

Within the CIS of the WFD at the Ecological Status (ECOSTAT) Working Group it was decided to establish an

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A WARM WELCOME TO NEW ESHA MEMBERS & SPONSORS!

Since the beginning of January 2011 ESHA has had a record new membership inscriptions. The Secretariat would therefore like to give a warm welcome to the newest ESHA members and to thank them for their support.

Corporations

PCC Deg Renewables GmbH, Duisburg (Germany)

Victoria Bioenergy, Novi Sad (Serbia)

KPartners CJSE, Yerevan (Armenia)

Superlit Romania SA, Bucharest (Romania)

Nettowatt, Brussels (Belgium) HYDRO SE d.o.o., Zagreb

(Croatia)

Individuals

Mr. Angel Zahariev, Sofia (Bulgaria)

Mr. Alexander Olague, Sheffield (United Kingdom)

Mr. Dusko Rakocevic (Montenegro)

Sponsors

IREM SpA, Borgone Susa (Italy)

EU POLICY BRIEFING

Water Framework Directive update

Important developments with the implementation of the Water Framework Directive are to be noted during the CIS workshop on WFD

NEWS FROM

THE EU

INSTITUTIONS

climate change. It covers the six most important renewable energy technologies, as well as their integration into present and future energy systems. It also takes into consideration the environmental and social consequences associated with these technologies, the cost and strategies to overcome technical as well as non-technical obstacles to their application and diffusion.

For further information please contact Lauha Fried. ESHA Seminar on Financing opportunities coming soon!

ESHA will organise a Seminar on financing opportunities for Hydropower including uptake of unused Structural Funds, Research Funding, LIFE+ and others in September 2011. More information will be provided to ESHA members soon.

For further information please contact Lauha Fried.

EU Policy Briefing continued…

ad-hoc group “Hydromorphology and Ecological Status/Potential”. The ad hoc working group will focus on 1) Continued information exchange on biological assessment methods sensitive to hydromorphological alterations; 2) Information exchange on methods to assess minimum ecological flow; 3) Further information exchange on the comparison of methods for defining Good Ecological Potential. A Workshop on Hydromorphology and Ecological Potential is foreseen for February/March 2012.

EU ENERGY POLICY

At the EREC 2011 Europe’s Renewable Energy Policy Conference on 24 May 2011 in Brussels, EREC launched a campaign for a legally binding renewable energy target of 45% of final energy consumption in the EU by 2030. This appeal is a request to ensure that the European Union deliver on its 80-95% greenhouse emissions reduction commitment by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels) and maintain its increasingly challenged industrial leadership in renewable energy technologies (please see more details in 2030 publication). Join the campaign by posting the 2030 button on your website!

The EU has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80-95% below 1990 levels by 2050 in the context of necessary reductions by developed countries as a group. The European Council has recognised that this commitment will require a revolution in energy systems, one which must start now, and is looking carbon 2050 strategy providing the

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forward to the elaboration of a low framework for the longer term action in energy and other related sectors. Energy system developments in Europe will be driven also by the need for energy security and affordable energy in a changing global energy context. The Commission anticipates publishing the EU Energy Roadmap 2050 Roadmap in October 2011.

An Ad Hoc Advisory Group for the preparation of the Energy Roadmap 2050 has been created. It will meet three times over the next months and its report will be published. It will focus on policy challenges, bearing scenario results in mind. A peer review of the modelling will also be set up. Director-Generals for Energy of the Member States, meeting on 13-15 July 2011 in Belchatow, will discuss the Energy Roadmap 2050 with an emphasis on technologies.

A legislative proposal from the Commission for the Infrastructure package on the needs and financing for further infrastructure development including issues such as how to handle intermittent RES, storage needs, interconnections and Smart grid development will follow later this year. A Communication on Smart Grids was published by the Commission in April. The International Energy Agency has also published a report on “Harnessing Variable Renewables: A Guide to the Balancing Challenge”.

Several reports assessing the National Renewable Energy Action Plans have been published such as Pöyry (for Eurelectric), Fraunhofer ISI & Technical University of Vienna and EEG and EU Roadmap: Mapping Renewable Energy Pathways towards 2020 by EREC and Policy Recommendations on the NREAPs by Becker Büttner Held.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation on May 9th in Abu Dhabi, assessing existing literature on the future potential of renewable energy for the mitigation of

ARE organises two events in July 2011

ARE is organising a “supporting policies

and legal frameworks working group” on

the 27th

of July 2007 in Brussels. The

group will focus on questions such as tax

exemption, standardisation of legal papers,

incentives and capacity building in relation

to off-grid renewable energies. Following

the discussions a set of recommendations

for decision-makers will be drafted.

A Kick-off Market Study taskforce will

follow on 28th

July 2011. The taskforce has

been designed to answer the need for

information on relevant sectoral market

data (fiscal regimes, trade regulations etc.)

in order to promote investment and

development of renewable energy in developing countries. Speakers joining the discussion include representatives from the IEA, REN 21, Partners for Innovation and the JRC.

For more information on the events please contact ARE.

NEWS FROM ARE

Pezzi Brookfield Renewable Power to supply key plant equipment to the (20MW) and Serra dos Cavalinhos (29MW) two small hydro plants in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil. The total estimated value for these projects is €115 million euros.

Read more at source

IN BRIEF

The role of Norwegian hydropower in Europe’s renewable development

By expanding its cable links to other North European countries, Norway can significantly help EU efforts in increasing electricity production and distribution from renewables. A feasibility study for such a link has been conducted which involves a 700 km long dual cable link connecting Norway and the UK.

Read more at source

On-site micro-hydro scheme for UK stone company

Forest Pennant, a natural stone company based in Gloucestershire (UK) began operation of its on-site micro-hydro generation turbine. The installation which will produce around 50 MWh of electricity per year will cover about a third of the company’s energy needs.

Read more at source

A small hydro project has been approved in Maldie Burn, Scotland

A small RWE hydropower project that can power 2,500 homes has been approved by the Scottish Government. The 4.5 MW hydro scheme on the Maldie Burn will create around 25 jobs during construction, a press release states.

Read more at source

EBRD boosts small hydro development in Macedonia

The European Bank For Reconstruction and Development will lend Macedonia 6 million euros (US$8.7 million) for SHP plant development.

Macedonian PCC Hydro DOOEL Skopje, a renewable energy company owned by German PCC DEG Renewables GmbH, will get the loan for four small hydro plants with a total capacity of 4.1 MW.

Read more at source

Georgia: hydropower boosts development in the country’s poorest regions

With support from UNDP the German development Bank (KfW) has launched a 5 million euro Georgia Renewable Energy Fund for the development of small hydro power plants. The renewable energy fund is the first of its kind in Georgia and currently the only source of low interest loans for developers of small hydro projects in the country.

Read more at source

Ten interesting water-powered gadgets!

The article lists 10 innovative hydro-powered products such as a mini-hydro turbine used to charged cell phones, aqua-powered batteries and Samsung water-powered portable phones.

Read more at source

International Hydropower Association offers support to development of India hydropower

The UK-based association will lend its expertise to enable the exploitation of currently identified hydro potential which is available in Himachal Pradesh, India. The State has identified a remaining hydro potential of over 23,000 MW, of which 25% has

so far been developed.

Read more at source

ALSTOM signs contracts for Brazil Small Hydropower Plants

Alstom has signed two contracts with

HYDRO AGENDA

25 - 27 May

Hidrogaia (Perols, France)

7- 9 June Renewable Energy World (Milan, Italy)

14 - 16 June IHA World Congress (Brazil, Iguassu)

29 June BHA England & Wales Hydropower Conference

(Cardiff, UK)

7 - 9 July Bangladesh International Energy Expo & Symposium

(Dahka, Bangladesh)

19 - 22 July HydroVision International

(Sacramento CA, USA)

12 Sept Water Policy 2011 (Vienna, Austria)

20 - 22 Sept HydroVision Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

27 - 29 Sept Renewable Energy World Asia (Singapore)

17 - 19 Oct World Renewable Energy Congress

(Bali, Indonesia)

17 - 19 Oct Hydro 2011 (Prague, Czech Republic)

26 - 28 Oct RENEXPO Poland (Warsaw, Poland)

26 - 28 Oct SYMCOM (Lodz, Poland)

For more information please see the ESHA Events Calendar.

To have your event featured in our newsletter please contact ESHA.

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Disclaimer

ESHA prepares this Newsletter to enhance access to information about news, policies and events concerning the small hydropower sector and renewable energy in general. Our goal is to keep this information timely and accurate and therefore, ESHA compiles this information from different available and reliable sources and selects Newsletter content in the best efficient way it knows. If errors are brought to our attention, we will try to correct them. However, ESHA accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regards to the information contained in the Newsletter. This information is of a general nature, not necessarily complete or accurate and sometimes linked to external sites over which ESHA has no control and for which ESHA assumes no responsibility.

The European Small Hydropower Association

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HYDRO INNOVATION

IREM, which was founded in 1947, specializes in the production and sale of electronically-regulated micro-hydro power plants. Power ranges from 50W to 100kW, head from 7 to 350 metres, and flow from 0,5 to 1000 litres/sec. Type of (crossflow) turbines: PELTON (top left) and BANKI (top right).

For more information on the products contact IREM

Photo: Loziata HEPP, Bulgaria, typ GSH900L12, parameters: 2836 kVA, 500 rpm, 6300 V

For more information contact TES VSETIN

TES VSETIN - Tradition since 1919. Manufacturer of robust generators for hydro power plants.