Abstract
Centre for Environmental Design of Renewable Energy (CEDREN) is a research centre focusing on hydropower production and environmental impacts of hydropower. The main objective of CEDREN is to develop and communicate design solutions for renewable energy production that address environmental and societal challenges at local, regional, national and global levels. Environmental design means that planning, building and operation have to include technical, economic, environmental and socio-political aspects throughout the whole life-span of the project. Methods and tools to ensure environmental design are developed in CEDREN and applied to case studies in Norway and internationally. These methods and tools focus on finding physical and biological bottlenecks for affected species and ecosystems by mapping, modelling and analysis of both physical conditions and ecological status. CEDREN proposes different measures, tools and methods to improve the environmental conditions as well as how to maintain or increase the power production. In addition, a strong focus must be made on political governance to ensure more representative participation of relevant stakeholders in the process of finding the best technical, economic and political solutions for power production, the environment and the society. Key research findings used to develop relationships between physical factors like flow, flow fluctuations, water temperature, water velocity, water depth and water-covered area and biological response will be shown. Examples of improved methods for better planning procedures with stakeholder engagement will be proposed. Examples of methods and tools for environmental design of hydropower will be given for several regulated rivers in Norway and abroad.
Highlights
Hydropower is the world’s largest renewable energy source, and further development is expected
Modern requirements to include environmental and social aspects of hydropower re‐design, re‐licensing and expansions will lead to new solutions
The River Kvina is a heavily regulated river where 70% of the natural inflow is stored in several reservoirs and transferred to a neighbouring catchment from Homstølvatn to feed the Tonstad Hydropower Plant
Summary
Hydropower is the world’s largest renewable energy source, and further development is expected. Future energy scenarios include large amounts of non‐regulated renewables, especially wind and solar power In such systems, there will be an increasing need for hydropower which has excellent capabilities for fast regulation, balancing and large‐scale storage, with changing demand. Based on the rules of thumbs presented in the handbook, these measures to reduce the effects of hydrological bottlenecks will increase smolt production in the existing and new salmon producing area (see below) by 7 400 to 9 900 smolts (minimum and modal estimates). At the same time, increased hydropower production in the existing Tonstad Power Plant and the planned Rafoss Power Plant may provide between 100 and 140 MWh of new renewable energy This exemplifies the potential for win‐win solutions by using the environmental design concept described in the handbook, in cases involving expansions of both the hydropower and salmon systems. Part 1 describes how to arrive at a diagnosis, while part 2 describes how effective design solutions can be developed and implemented
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