Small Hydroelectric Energy and Spatial Planning: A Methodology Introducing the Concept of Territorial Carrying Capacity

Abstract

The promotion of renewable energy sources (RESs) is a key European and national policy aimed at strengthening clean energy production, decoupling from fossil fuels, and responding to climate change commitments. Spatial planning is crucial as it can spatially direct the demand for investments in RESs, taking into account the challenges related to more efficient coexistence of RESs and environmental assets, both natural and manmade. Specific objectives, such as the definition of the carrying capacity concept, take on considerable importance in ensuring the balance between the demand for RESs and a number of other priorities. Small hydroelectric power stations (SHPSs), being spatially dependent on the existence of the natural resource (water), incorporate specific impacts in the areas of installation; namely, the watercourses. Taking into consideration the concept of carrying capacity for the areas where SHPSs are proposed to be installed by the Greek Special Spatial Planning Framework for RESs, which is limited to a linear/watercourse approach, this paper proposes a new complementary approach, that of “territorial” carrying capacity. The former involves the negotiation of terms and conditions for siting an SHPS within the narrow range of a water body (watercourse), while the latter, as proposed in this paper, attempts to capture the problem at the level of the wider territory or the functional area of a catchment, an approach that places carrying capacity in a more strategic spatial planning context.