Across Europe, small-scale hydropower is promoted as a clean energy source, yet it often delivers minimal electricity while causing significant ecological and social harm. In Albania, hundreds of hydropower plants have dried up rivers and undermined rural livelihoods. In Bavaria, southern Germany, thousands of installations fragment waterways, undermining the goals of the EU Water Framework Directive. In Czechia, weak regulation has enabled biodiversity loss for negligible energy gains. Power vs. Preservation – or Both? explores this tension, asking whether hydropower can truly coexist with healthy ecosystems, and how communities – rather than large energy corporations – can benefit directly from rivers and streams by living in greater harmony with them.
Through solutions-oriented journalism, the initiative documents emerging alternatives: dam removals, ecological redesigns, the reimagining of local economies, and community-driven models that seek to align the energy transition with river conservation.
Image on the right by Rainer Kwiotek/ Zeitenspiegel.
Image below by Katerina Hefler.
