Charting a Sustainable Path for Renewable Energy Development

The report examines the water-energy nexus, focusing on the trade-offs associated with hydropower and bioenergy. It highlights the role of hydropower in grid stability and the water-intensive nature of bioenergy feedstock, while emphasizing the need for integrated water management and strict sustainability criteria for private sector investments, particularly in developing countries.

• Hydropower is a critical component for integrating intermittent renewable energy sources like solar and wind into electric grids because it can function as energy storage to match fluctuating demand, a capability shared primarily only with natural gas.
• While hydropower provides significant economic and energy benefits, it causes substantial environmental and social harm, including the transformation of river systems from lotic to lentic, the emission of greenhouse gases like methane during reservoir filling, and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
• In Sweden, hydropower provides approximately 45 per cent of electricity generation and 14 per cent of total energy production, though its historical development caused significant loss of traditional livelihoods and cultural areas for the indigenous sami population.
• Bioenergy production can be highly water-intensive, with global aggregated averages for water consumption in bioenergy and food production often being hundreds of times higher than other primary energy types.
• The sustainability of bioenergy is site-specific and depends on factors such as feedstock type, climate, and governance; a lack of regulation can lead to severe negative impacts on local communities and ecosystems through reduced water quantity and quality.
• Development assistance organisations providing financial support to private sector bioenergy producers should require recipients to demonstrate sustainability targets, including the use of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessment (ESHIA) processes.

APA

G., B., I., B., C., B., J., G., F., K., A., L., G., O., & J., S. (2014). Charting a Sustainable Path for Renewable Energy Development. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SWH-2014-Hydropower-Bioenergy.pdf

Chicago

G., Berndes,, Björklund, I., Borg, C., Granit, J., Källström, F., Lindström, A., Olsson, G., and Sandström, J. Charting a Sustainable Path for Renewable Energy Development. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2014. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SWH-2014-Hydropower-Bioenergy.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{g2014charting, author = {G., Berndes, and I., Björklund, and C., Borg, and J., Granit, and F., Källström, and A., Lindström, and G., Olsson, and J., Sandström,}, title = {{Charting a Sustainable Path for Renewable Energy Development}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2014}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SWH-2014-Hydropower-Bioenergy.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }