Acknowledgements

The research presented in this paper was carried out as a part of the R&D program Kraft och liv i vatten (KLIV). The partners behind the program are several hydropower companies in Sweden, Swedish Energy Agency, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and Sweden's water authorities.

Author details

Sweden

Wondmagegn Tafesse Tirkaso<sup>1</sup>

David Spjut<sup>2</sup> and Erik Degerman<sup>2</sup>

\*Address all correspondence to: ing-marie.gren@slu.se

, Ing-Marie Gren<sup>1</sup>

Figure A1. Locations of hydropower plants and dry channels included in the survey.

1 Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

2 Department of Soil and Water, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala,

\*, Leonard Sandin2

Biodiversity Restoration and Renewable Energy from Hydropower: Conflict or Synergy?

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69134

129

, Joel Segersten<sup>2</sup>

,


#### Appendix: Table A1 and Figure A1.

Table A1. Correlation matrix.

Biodiversity Restoration and Renewable Energy from Hydropower: Conflict or Synergy? http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69134 129

Figure A1. Locations of hydropower plants and dry channels included in the survey.

## Author details

these reasons, but it can be argued that impacts of releases of water from the reservoirs to the dry channels on electricity production would be shown in the continuous monitoring of electricity production. Nevertheless, we should be careful in interpreting the lack of reporting of a loss as the nonexistence of decreases in electricity production from programs on minimum discharges to

The main results from our analysis of the different variables in explaining the probability of a reported cost are that the existence of a program for minimum water releases and a larger size of the plant as measured by kWh electricity production increase the probability. On the other hand, site characteristics as measured by the flow of natural water into the dry channel and length of the dry channels reduce the probability. These results point out potential cost savings for improving biodiversity in dry channels at hydropower plants by targeting water releases from reservoirs. A cost-effective restoration policy requires that restoration measures are directed toward locations with high biodiversity impacts (e.g., [17]). Admittedly, due to lack of data on the impact of restoration measures on biodiversity, our results can give only partial guidance on the costeffective restoration of biodiversity loss by means of water releases from reservoirs. Despite this limitation, the results can be useful when considering that current Swedish policy is to a large extent based on uniform regulations for all hydropower plants, such a maximum loss of 2.3% in the annual production of electricity [18]. Our results show that the probability of costs in terms of losses in electricity production is low for relatively small-sized plants, and where the natural flow of waters to the dry channels is high and the length of the channels is large. Thus, a comparison of costs and effects of current uniform policy with a policy targeting restoration measures toward plant sites with these characteristics can be of interest for economic analysis.

The research presented in this paper was carried out as a part of the R&D program Kraft och liv i vatten (KLIV). The partners behind the program are several hydropower companies in Sweden, Swedish Energy Agency, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and

VIX 0.069 0.031 0.181 0.294 1

Logelprod Loglength Logmsec Mindisch VIX

dry channels.

128 Selected Studies in Biodiversity

Acknowledgements

Sweden's water authorities.

Logelprod 1

Table A1. Correlation matrix.

Appendix: Table A1 and Figure A1.

Loglength 0.056 1

Logmsec 0.279 0.021 1

Mindisch 0.605 0.013 0.399 1

Wondmagegn Tafesse Tirkaso<sup>1</sup> , Ing-Marie Gren<sup>1</sup> \*, Leonard Sandin2 , Joel Segersten<sup>2</sup> , David Spjut<sup>2</sup> and Erik Degerman<sup>2</sup>

\*Address all correspondence to: ing-marie.gren@slu.se

1 Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

2 Department of Soil and Water, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
