You are here: Home > Our work > SHERPA > Publications

PUBLICATIONS UNDER SHERPA

SHERPA has produced a number of publications available for the public in this website on different issues covered by the project.

The following page offers a brief description on the work and publications performed under each Workpackage.

WP2: Status of SHP policy framework and market development in the EU-25

The following WP2 consisted on collecting market and policy information about SHP in the EU countries to complete a full description at EU level on:

- Status and prospect of SHP technology today and recent technological and market development of small hydropower

- Review of Policy initiatives framework conditions for SHP

Two publications are available

WP3: National Policy Workhops

In order to assist decision makers and politicians in the EU in the definition of future strategies for the uptake of SHP, a series of National Policy workshops were organised under SHERPA. Teh workshops were address to politicians, decision makers and representatives from national as well as regional administration. Representatives of NGOs were also invited to open the dialogue in key policy issues like the Water Framework Directive or the RES Directive.

Five workshops were organised in:

France
Lithuania
Italy
Poland
Sweden

A full description of these workshops as well as the material is available here

WP4: Public Image Campaign

The objective of this WP was to develop a set of targeted coordinated actions, in which different players had the oportunity to act and react in order to contribute positively to increase public awareness and acceptance of small hydro power schemes and to use project results as an oportunity to increase the awareness of the small hydropower technology.

This campaign created an information exchange platform that aimed at overcoming barriers and promote better exploitation.

the following actions and outputs were performed:

Public Image Folders

SHERPA has produced four public image folders on SHP in English and Italian. These folders cover key aspects of the SHP in relation to the industry, the environment, the policy framework and the sector. They are intended to be available for the general public in order to improve the knowledge and the image of the SHP.

Report on technical and operational procedures to better integrate Small hydro plants in environment- Case studies

Small Hydropower plants are often run-of-river hydro plants and, thanks to the absence of a storage basin, have a minor impact on the hydrological regime of the river, one of the most important sources of environmental impact.

The application of a careful and modern design based on the application of mitigation and compensation measures that can ameliorate integration of Small Hydro Plants (SHP) in the environment.

The aim of this report is to describe a new concept of hydropower design, more environmentally-friendly than the traditional one. Nowadays, when climate change and water resource management have been defined as the major international problems faced by the International Community, this sort of approach seems to be the only rational way to continue using a reliable source of renewable energy while at the same time maintaining a healthy environment and a sustainable ecosystem.

Report on mechanisms of social engineering

The traditional meaning of the word 'engineering' includes the entire sector of technical efforts in developing projects and technical solutions. For a very long period the technical feasibility has been the crucial criteria for realisation. Due to the continuously advancing technical excellence increasing the costs the economical feasibility of a project superposed any decision process, serving as a second, significant criterion.

Both the awareness of people towards any alteration of their individual environment but also the dimension of projects has been increasing rapidly. A completely new field of engineering has to be developed, social engineering, focusing exclusively on non-technical aspects within the project implementation.

Obviously social engineering will be of high importance whenever technical or economic arguments are not sufficient to persuade people involved. Apart from the individual need, social engineering should become an obligatory part of any engineering process in a wider scope.

There are a few classical fields of application: waste disposal sites, airports, freeways, high voltage lines, nuclear power plants but also hydropower plants. Social engineering is a general task and there is global need for it.

This report is focussed on aspects of social engineering in the context of hydropower plants. Some criteria and mechanism are still general, but some are very specific meeting the peculiar features of hydropower.

Small Hydro Award

SHERPA has also developed a Small Hydro Award . ESHA together with the IWHW partner of the consortium have defined some sustainable criteria specifically applicable to small hydropower plants. These criteria have been tested as well in two different plants in Austria in order to measure the level of integration in the environment and the sustainable approach. This exercise is just a first trial in order to develop standard criteria applicable to all SHP. The result of the first test are important for analyzing the relevance of the criteria but this action should be seen as the beginning of a long-term objectives. Therefore, ESHA would like to continue working in this issue even when SHERPA project has reached its end.

You can download the two examples tried in Austria here:

Power plant St Martin in Thorlbach
Power plant Waldnau in Schwarzache

Environmental Certification - ISO 14001

Please download the ISO 14001 brochure here (EN and FR)

International Workshop on Public Image

The International Workshop on Public Image was held in France together with the International Conference Energaia in December 2007.

A detailed description of this event can be found here

Report on Environmentalist engagement (Barometer)

Please download the Environmental Barometer on SHP here.

WP5: SHP and Local Development

The objective of the works developed under this WP was to get a better integration of environmental and other local constraints within SHP development.

Developing SHP projects with a sustainable approach needs to integrate numerous constraints from a technical and economic point of view and from environmental, biological, socio-economic ones as well. In this context, local participation is required to guarantee a good acceptance of the project. Indeed, SHP projects which are mainly decentralised and very locally involving the community cannot be developed without an approach integrating all actors involved in the project.

The outputs of this WP were: