IEAHydropower

Annex II - Small-Scale Hydropower

Advances in fully automated hydropower installations and reductions in manufacturing costs have made small scale hydropower increasingly attractive. The task force on Small Scale Hydropower (Annex II) is active in several areas.

Elliot Falls

Website

The task force on Small-Scale Hydropower (Annex II) runs a very successful web-site, International Small–Hydro Atlas, which has approximately 100,000 hits per month.

This is an international database which facilitates the development of new small hydro projects of more than 50 kW and less than 10MW installed capacity. It provides assessment tools and methodologies for potential and developed sites, GIS searching capabilities, country profiles, international contacts for small hydro, planning resources and more.

Workshops

The Annex conducts regular workshops at hydro conferences, and supports seminars and training programmes with organisaitons such as UNIDO, IN-SHP, NRCan. Notice of these workshops is posted on the website.

Reports

In Phase 1, Annex representatives from nine countries (Canada, China, Finland, France, Japan, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) worked cooperatively to produce four reports:

A critical review of international computer-based assessment tools and methodologies for reconnaissance, power analysis, pre-feasibility analysis, site evaluation, investigation and design of small hydro projects.

In October 1998 the Small-Hydro programme of the IEA Hydropower Agreement organised a Workshop in Nice, France. The purpose of the Workshop was to assess further opportunities for international small-hydro R&D. The report includes a synthesis of the proceedings of the workshop, a listing of some of the papers presented and a summary of recommendations for future R&D.

This report describes methods for financing small-scale hydropower projects. Five main topics are covered: the general aspects of financing of small hydropower projects, including the key players in the financing process; alternative financing strategies including a discussion of the different routes of financing, and factors affecting the choice of strategy; a brief discussion of financing conditions; the key points in successful financing; and possible improvements to the financing situation.

Before a developer / investor decides to realise a hydropower-project, it is essential to have a total overview of the economy of the project. This includes not only the expected costs and benefits, but also the sensitivity i.e. the corresponding economical risk and uncertainty. By presenting different methods of calculating and illustrating the risks and uncertainty, the report aims to make a useful contribution to the economic evaluation of hydropower projects, and to contribute to the dialogue between developers, investors and financing institutions.

For more information on the Small-Scale Hydropower Annex, please contact the Secretary, Kearon Bennett



The IEA Hydropower Agreement is keen to promote its work programmes within participating countries and to encourage further interest in its work from non-participating countries. All OECD countries are eligible to participate fully. In addition, the IEA Governing Board has decided that the Implementing Agreements may also be open to non-member countries. If you are interested in finding out more about IEA Hydropower, please contact the ExCo Secretary.