SMALL HYDRO AS ONE OF THE OLDEST RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

The energy production has become an up-to-date issue that specialists and authorities have to deal with. The hydropower is one of the oldest energy sources of the mankind, namely for irrigation and industry purposes. In Europe, the development of small hydro-energy had a new growing since the seventies, due to the world energy crisis and, more and more the concerns of negative environmental impacts, as well as due to the development of new technologies. Nowadays, small hydro is one of the most valuable answers to the question of how to offer to isolated rural communities the benefits of electrification and the progress associated with it, as well as to improve the quality of life. The hydroelectric power plant utilises a natural or artificial fall of a river. The hydraulic conveyance circuit can be integrated in other components for multiple purposes (e.g. irrigation or water supply systems). This type of electricity production does not consume water, being considered so far one of the most important renewable energy source. At present, the economic utilisation of renewable energies is based on new technologies and on environmental protection techniques. Small hydropower, with its multiple advantages, as a decentralised, low-cost and reliable form of energy, is in the forefront of many developing countries to achieve energy self-sufficiency. It represents an important environmental benefit to aid sustainable development due to no release of carbon dioxide that contributes to ozone depletion and global warming. Summing up, the small hydropower can fill the gap of the decentralised production, for private or municipal activity production for sale to national electric grid or for supply industries, rural or isolated zones, improving their development