IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v244y2025ics0960148125002575.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do we have to choose between the ecosystems and the energy transition? Environmental trade-offs with operation of Norwegian hydropower

Author

Listed:
  • Aubin, Viviane
  • Helseth, Arild
  • Korpås, Magnus

Abstract

In Norway, environmental constraints applying to hydropower may become stricter to safeguard local ecosystems. At the same time, Norwegian hydropower can facilitate the transition to more renewable energy within Northern Europe. This study quantifies the aggregated impact of environmental constraints on the Norwegian power system and its interactions with neighbouring countries up to 2050. Requirements for augmented protection of the local environment affect hydropower operation and, hence, the power system. For example, a loss of 3% in production combined with a 4% reduction in average hourly ramp for the Norwegian hydropower fleet results in our case study in up to a 14% increase in average Norwegian power prices and 4% increase in congestion on transmission lines towards neighbouring countries. The abundance of cheap renewable energy can mitigate price augmentation, but losses in flexibility can be difficult to recover completely within the existing hydropower infrastructure. While prioritizing hydropower plants with vulnerable surrounding ecosystems for adding new environmental targets helps limit their constraining effect on the power system, it also leads to an economic disparity between individual plants; stricter environmental constraints on parts of the hydropower fleet increase the revenues of the unaffected part (by up to 10% in our case study).

Suggested Citation

  • Aubin, Viviane & Helseth, Arild & Korpås, Magnus, 2025. "Do we have to choose between the ecosystems and the energy transition? Environmental trade-offs with operation of Norwegian hydropower," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:244:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125002575
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.122595
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125002575
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2025.122595?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Niu, Shilei & Insley, Margaret, 2013. "On the economics of ramping rate restrictions at hydro power plants: Balancing profitability and environmental costs," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 39-52.
    2. Brown, T. & Reichenberg, L., 2021. "Decreasing market value of variable renewables can be avoided by policy action," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Lei, Kaixuan & Chang, Jianxia & Long, Ruihao & Wang, Yimin & Zhang, Hongxue, 2022. "Cascade hydropower station risk operation under the condition of inflow uncertainty," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PA).
    4. Moritz Schillinger & Hannes Weigt & Philipp Emanuel Hirsch, 2020. "Environmental flows or economic woes—Hydropower under global energy market changes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-19, August.
    5. T. Brown & L. Reichenberg, 2020. "Decreasing market value of variable renewables can be avoided by policy action," Papers 2002.05209, arXiv.org, revised May 2021.
    6. Rahmaniani, Ragheb & Crainic, Teodor Gabriel & Gendreau, Michel & Rei, Walter, 2017. "The Benders decomposition algorithm: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(3), pages 801-817.
    7. Ian J. Bateman & Georgina M. Mace, 2020. "The natural capital framework for sustainably efficient and equitable decision making," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(10), pages 776-783, October.
    8. Liu, Xin & Luo, Yongyao & Karney, Bryan W. & Wang, Weizheng, 2015. "A selected literature review of efficiency improvements in hydraulic turbines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 18-28.
    9. Lion Hirth, 2013. "The Market Value of Variable Renewables. The Effect of Solar and Wind Power Variability on their Relative Price," RSCAS Working Papers 2013/36, European University Institute.
    10. Mowers, Matthew & Mignone, Bryan K. & Steinberg, Daniel C., 2023. "Quantifying value and representing competitiveness of electricity system technologies in economic models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    11. Philipp Emanuel Hirsch & Moritz Schillinger & Katharina Appoloni & Patricia Burkhardt-Holm & Hannes Weigt, 2016. "Integrating Economic and Ecological Benchmarking for a Sustainable Development of Hydropower," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-20, August.
    12. Graabak, I. & Korpås, M. & Jaehnert, S. & Belsnes, M., 2019. "Balancing future variable wind and solar power production in Central-West Europe with Norwegian hydropower," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 870-882.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Keppler, Jan Horst & Quemin, Simon & Saguan, Marcelo, 2022. "Why the sustainable provision of low-carbon electricity needs hybrid markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    2. Davis, Dominic & Brear, Michael J., 2024. "Impact of short-term wind forecast accuracy on the performance of decarbonising wholesale electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    3. Finke, Jonas & Bertsch, Valentin & Di Cosmo, Valeria, 2023. "Exploring the feasibility of Europe’s renewable expansion plans based on their profitability in the market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    4. Mowers, Matthew & Mignone, Bryan K. & Steinberg, Daniel C., 2023. "Quantifying value and representing competitiveness of electricity system technologies in economic models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    5. Jåstad, Eirik Ogner & Trotter, Ian M. & Bolkesjø, Torjus Folsland, 2022. "Long term power prices and renewable energy market values in Norway – A probabilistic approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Prokhorov, Oleksandr & Dreisbach, Dina, 2022. "The impact of renewables on the incidents of negative prices in the energy spot markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    7. Glenk, Gunther & Reichelstein, Stefan, 2021. "Intermittent versus dispatchable power sources: An integrated competitive assessment," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-065, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Johanndeiter, Silke & Bertsch, Valentin, 2024. "Bidding zero? An analysis of solar power plants’ price bids in the electricity day-ahead market," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 371(C).
    9. Tom Brown & Fabian Neumann & Iegor Riepin, 2024. "Price formation without fuel costs: the interaction of demand elasticity with storage bidding," Papers 2407.21409, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2025.
    10. Glenk, Gunther & Reichelstein, Stefan, 2022. "The economic dynamics of competing power generation sources," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    11. Lebeau, Alexis & Petitet, Marie & Quemin, Simon & Saguan, Marcelo, 2024. "Long-term issues with the Energy-Only Market design in the context of deep decarbonization," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    12. Justus Haucap & Jürgen Kühling & Munib Amin & Gert Brunekreeft & Dörte Fouquet & Veronika Grimm & Jörg Gundel & Martin Kment & Wolfgang Ketter & Jochen Kreusel & Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof & Mario Lie, 2022. "Erneuerbare Energien effizient und wirksam fördern [Promote Renewable Energies Efficiently and Effectively]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 102(9), pages 694-702, September.
    13. Wehrle, Sebastian & Gruber, Katharina & Schmidt, Johannes, 2021. "The cost of undisturbed landscapes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    14. Majidi, Hassan & Hayati, Mohammad Mohsen & Breyer, Christian & Mohammadi-ivatloo, Behnam & Honkapuro, Samuli & Karjunen, Hannu & Laaksonen, Petteri & Sihvonen, Ville, 2025. "Overview of energy modeling requirements and tools for future smart energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    15. Justyna Godawska & Joanna Wyrobek, 2021. "The Impact of Environmental Policy Stringency on Renewable Energy Production in the Visegrad Group Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-23, September.
    16. M. Millinger & F. Hedenus & E. Zeyen & F. Neumann & L. Reichenberg & G. Berndes, 2025. "Diversity of biomass usage pathways to achieve emissions targets in the European energy system," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 10(2), pages 226-242, February.
    17. Böttger, Diana & Härtel, Philipp, 2022. "On wholesale electricity prices and market values in a carbon-neutral energy system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    18. Kirchem, Dana & Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2023. "Power sector effects of green hydrogen production in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    19. Javier L'opez Prol & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2020. "The Economics of Variable Renewables and Electricity Storage," Papers 2012.15371, arXiv.org.
    20. Yang, Jinxi & Johansson, Daniel J.A., 2024. "Adapting to uncertainty: Modeling adaptive investment decisions in the electricity system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:244:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125002575. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.