Product Description
The power sector has undergone a liberalization process both in industrialized and developing countries, involving market regimes, as well as ownership structure. These processes have called for new and innovative concepts, affecting both the operation of existing hydropower plants and transmission facilities, as well as the development and implementation of new projects. At the same time a sharper focus is being placed on environmental considerations. In this context it is important to emphasize the obvious benefits of hydropower as a clean, renewable and sustainable energy source. It is however also relevant to focus on the impact on the local environment during the planning and operation of hydropower plants. New knowledge and methods have been developed that make it possible to mitigate the local undesirable effects of such projects. Development and operation of modern power systems require sophisticated technology. Continuous research and development in this field is therefore crucial to maintaining hydropower as a competitive and environmentally well-accepted form of power generation.
... Read more

Product Description

A handbook that offers a practical understanding of how to influence government decisions about hydropower development on the nation's rivers. ... Read more

Product Description
This text deals with societal decision-making relating to large-scale, major energy facilities (abbreviated hereafter as MEFs): hydro-power developments, nuclear power plants, and off-shore petroleum projects. In Norway, as in many other countries, national authorities have a major responsiblity for the planning, financing and construction of such projects. Construction of large-scale energy facilities is part of industrialization and modernization. MEF projects are often major engineering feats as well as symbols for advanced industrialization. However, in Western nations, decisions about MEFs have over the last decades become increasingly controversial. It is enough to mention planning and construction of nuclear power plants in West Germany, Austria, Sweden and the USA as well as Norway, and hydro-power projects in Austria and Norway. In many ways such projects transcend the scope of government or state decision-making. They affect the dynamic relationship between state decision-making, on the one hand, and the distributive effects of - and social reactions to - the decisions, on the other hand.Such impacts of MEFs have led us to conceptualize decisions about MEF projects as societal decision-making. This type of decision-making extends beyond sector and even formal political institutions. ... Read more