Rivers run dry as claims of illegality surround Romania's hydropower boom
Source: The Guardian
Rivers run dry as claims of illegality surround Romania's hydropower boom
Green tariffs are driving development in the Southern Carpathian
mountains, but with ecological and legal consequences
Luke Dale-Harris in Curtea de Arges
theguardian.com, Tuesday 4 February 2014 12.00 GMT
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This is one of more than 500 "micro" hydropower plants operating or in various stages of construction and planning in the largely protected mountains. Together, they will produce less than 4% of the country's energy.
Often subsidised by European funds and with profits boosted by up to 500% from green tariffs – a subsidy drawn from a tax on energy consumers – micro hydropower has quickly become a favoured form of investment.
As profits are highest where the rivers run fast, investors are drawn deep into the mountains, in many cases to state-owned nature parks, protected under EU and domestic law. Binescu says: "Many of these projects are illegal on so many levels that only the powerful and well-connected have access to them." It is this, as much as the ecological impact of the power plants, which has drawn public protests throughout the Carpathians over the last year, in Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/04/romania-hydropower-illegality-claims-green-tariffs