Impacts of the EU and national environmental legislation on tapping hydropower resources in Lithuania – A lowland country

Abstract

This paper briefly discusses the assessment of hydropower resources (mainly, Small Hydropower, SHP) in the light of general methodologies of renewable energy potential, highlighting the particularities of hydropower. A short review of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) from the hydropower development perspective is provided, especially focusing on the impact of power plant pre-planning mechanisms whereby rivers or their reaches are listed as exempt from damming (so-called ‘no go areas’). The hydropower regulation (for prospective hydropower schemes) in the country is critically reviewed, and the current state of the drafting of river basin management plans is presented. Practically speaking, the national water law does not guarantee a declared statement of sustainable use of water resources because of the introduced list of protected rivers exempt from dam construction. In a number of multipurpose water resource development projects that override public interests, e.g., inland navigation and historic water mills, power generation is a secondary service unable to be implemented, due to on the list of protected rivers. In this paper, based on the geospatial datasets of water streams and their environmental attributes, three pre-planning levels for hydropower development are proposed, and the environmentally compliant potential of the SHP is identified. The remaining SHP potential (117 GWh/year or close to 6% of the gross theoretical potential) is among the lowest ones in the EU. The disproportionate environmental constraints in Lithuania are a key factor preventing the development of hydropower and the multipurpose use of water resources.