Constant Concessions Under Changing Circumstances: the Water and Renewable Energy Directives and Hydropower in Sweden

This report analyzes the implementation of the EU's Renewable Energy Directive (RES) and Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Sweden, specifically focusing on the hydropower sector. It examines how the Swedish judicial concession system, which governs hydropower operations, creates conflicts between renewable energy production goals and aquatic biodiversity requirements. The author argues that the current system's lack of incentives and high level of distrust between operators and authorities hinder both the efficiency gains from hydropower refurbishments and the timely implementation of water quality improvements.

• Hydropower is the most significant source of renewable electricity in Sweden, producing nearly half of the total electricity consumed in 2008, with storage hydropower accounting for over 97 per cent of that production.
• The Swedish hydropower sector is governed by a judicial concession system where the vast majority of active concessions (3,393 out of 3,727) were granted under the 1918 water law or earlier, meaning they often lack modern environmental considerations.
• There is a significant conflict in the concession review process: operators risk losing revenue (up to 5 per cent of production value without compensation) when concessions are reviewed for environmental interests, leading them to protract or avoid the process.
• The Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency (LFASA) often petitions for 'extensive examination' during concession change trials for refurbishments, which can discourage operators from implementing efficiency upgrades to avoid full environmental reviews.
• The implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Sweden involves designating water bodies as Heavily Modified Water (HMW) or requiring Good Ecological Status (GES). All hydropower stations with more than 10 MW potential were initially designated as HMW.
• Despite the goals of the WFD, the concession review process is extremely slow; only 78 concessions were reviewed according to the Environmental Code between 1999 and 2009.
• The report finds that the RES and WFD are generally coherent in Sweden because the planned expansion of renewable energy relies primarily on wind power and combined heat and power, rather than large-scale hydropower expansion.
• Sweden is projected to have a surplus of 23 TWh of electricity by 2020, which could potentially be used to offset the energy losses resulting from water improvements for biodiversity.
• The author suggests creating a general environmental compensation scheme to fully compensate operators for revenue losses from reviewed concessions, which would remove the incentive to delay the process and enable 'win-win' solutions for energy and biodiversity.
• The report proposes that eligibility for renewable electricity certificates should be linked to the possession of a reviewed concession that meets Environmental Code and WFD requirements to better coordinate energy and environmental goals.

APA

-1, & Rudberg, P. M. (2011). Constant Concessions Under Changing Circumstances: the Water and Renewable Energy Directives and Hydropower in Sweden. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Rudberg-ConstantConcessionsUnderChangingCircumstances-2011-2ndEd.pdf

Chicago

-1, and Peter M. Rudberg. Constant Concessions Under Changing Circumstances: the Water and Renewable Energy Directives and Hydropower in Sweden. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2011. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Rudberg-ConstantConcessionsUnderChangingCircumstances-2011-2ndEd.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=-1 |last2=Rudberg |first2=Peter M. |title=Constant Concessions Under Changing Circumstances: the Water and Renewable Energy Directives and Hydropower in Sweden |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2011 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Rudberg-ConstantConcessionsUnderChangingCircumstances-2011-2ndEd.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{12011constant, author = {-1 and Rudberg, Peter M.}, title = {{Constant Concessions Under Changing Circumstances: the Water and Renewable Energy Directives and Hydropower in Sweden}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2011}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Rudberg-ConstantConcessionsUnderChangingCircumstances-2011-2ndEd.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }