Renewable energies are more and more common, but it is often hard to clarify how good or bad they impact the environment. The whole picture should be considered rather than the source of energy alone, this is also the case of hydropower. This kind of energy is based on fresh water, on natural river power, but is it true that there are no negative impacts on natural river equilibrium and its fish? Is it possible to build an environmentally friendly hydro-energy plant minimizing the impacts, and respecting law and landscapes? This is what the CH2OICE project is about: defining and testing an agreed methodology for volunteer labelling of hydropower production of the highest environmental standard. The project started in 2008, financed by UE Intelligent Energy Europe, and it recently launched the certification label. This is a transboundary project that involved Italy, Slovenia, France, Spain and Slovakia. Quoting the official website "the proposed action aims at developing a technically and economically feasible certification procedure for hydro power generation facilities of high environmental standard, being explicitly coherent with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive, to be implemented in labelled electricity products, and being integrated, as much as possible, with existing EU tools, such as Ecolabel, EMAS, EIA and SEA." This is a huge step for renewable energy and environmental safeguard. The first Italian and Slovenian pilot applications have been successful and they have received the CH2OICE certification...... Who will be the next ones?

For further information click here.