Hydroelectricity strategy
The Government supports the development of sustainable hydropower schemes as they can make a small but useful contribution towards meeting renewable energy and climate change targets. DECC has been working with the Environment Agency on streamlining their permitting process and improving the guidance they give to developers, communities and other river users including the angling community. All decisions on permits rest with the Environment Agency as the independent regulator.
The Government does not have a plan or programme for the country-wide development of hydropower but DECC works to remove unnecessary barriers. This enables the industry to develop schemes that meet the requirements of the regulatory framework and ensures their environmental impact is acceptable.
New hydropower schemes
The Government provides incentives for the deployment of new hydropower schemes through the Renewables Obligation or Feed-in Tariffs. Schemes up to 50kW can only apply for FITs, whereas schemes between 50kW and 5MW can choose between FITs or ROCs. Any scheme over 5MW is only eligible for ROCs.
The Government’s National Renewable Energy Action Plan, which was submitted to the EU in July 2010, contains a central scenario for hydro that envisages between 40MW and 50MW a year being installed annually up to 2020. In 2009, the latest year for which complete data is available, some 15MW of new capacity was installed. We therefore have some way to go to reach these annual levels.