Evaluation of hydropower potential in Pohorje streams considering environmental objectives

Harmonizing objectives of the two European Directives, Directive 2000/60/EC and Directive 2009/28/EC, is a challenging task. The objective of Directive 2009/28/EC is to increase energy production from renewable energy sources, while the objective of Directive 2000/60/EC is to maintain and improve good quality of water. Both directives affect the development of obtaining energy from small hydropower plants. Directive 2009/28/EC aims to increase the production of energy from small hydroelectric plants, as one of the renewable energy sources. Due to Directive 2009/28/EC, it is necessary to take into account many environmental factors, including the consideration of ecologically acceptable flow. To coordinate the objectives of Directive2000/60/EC and Directive 2009/28/EC is necessary to make compromises between environmental, ecological, economic and socio-political factors. When deciding on building small hydropower plants is, due to different criteria that are considered in such decisions, often most appropriate to use multi-criteria analysis. A multi-objective analysis is used in diploma thesis to determine the optimal ecologically acceptable flow of streams Oplotnica and Lobnica, while taking into account the environmental requirements and demands for greater production of energy from renewable sources. The diploma thesis focuses mainly on the determination of hydroelectric power potential of the entire stream at once. This is then used to evaluate the criterion of electricity generation in multi-criteria analysis