Hessen: Fish protection versus hydropower | Rhine-Main

• fromJutta Rippegather

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Power plant operators feel their existence is threatened by the country. Here, politics is pursued unilaterally.

They use the power of Main, Fulda, Werra or Lahn. They produce clean electricity and have been driving mills in an environmentally friendly way for centuries: there are 614 hydropower plants in Hesse.

Very big ones, like the one in Frankfurt Griesheim, and very small ones – especially in Northern Hesse. Their operators are currently very concerned about their existence. Their fear: they have to give up because they cannot make investments in fish protection. “Minimum water waiver” is the key word with which Ronald Steinhoff can speak in rage.

Steinhoff is committed to ensuring that water will continue to be an important supplier of sustainable energy in the future. But the Hessian Ministry of the Environment neglected the interests of the power plant operators: “We need a sustainable waiver.” Steinhoff is the managing director of a family company in Weilrod im Taunus.

He is modernizing existing hydropower plants, for example by installing fish stairs, and reactivating old locations. The engineer and active environmentalist is also the deputy chairman of the Hessian hydropower group. He knows the current concerns of the operators.

Modern fish stairs

Those in northern Hesse have long had gossip with the regional council there. The first hearings for plant operators in Central Hesse are now imminent. “People are turning off the water,” fears Steinhoff. Many use the water: shipping, anglers, the farmers who register.

Instead of imposing more regulations on them, the country is destroying the existence of the smallest player, who after all is still three percent of Hesse’s electricity needs. “It is not the intention to dig the water from the hydropower plants, but to prevent the fish from lacking the water,” assures Julia Stoye, spokeswoman for the green minister for the environment, Priska Hinz. The new version of the Water Resources Act of July 2009 requires a water framework directive with a strong emphasis on the good ecological status in the rivers. “This made it necessary to also adapt the Hessian minimum water regulations.”

For the ecological functions, it is necessary in some cases that more water remains in the main body of water, less that is squeezed off to generate energy. “Unfortunately, climate change means that waters are more likely to have low water or even dry up in the upper reaches.”

The minimum water waiver stipulates minimum outflows in order to achieve continuity. Steinhoff replies that this is also possible with modern fish steps. A funding program for smaller operators was agreed in the Hessian coalition agreement. That, he says, could be the salvation.

But the big operators are also in trouble. Less so is the Aschaffenburg Water and Shipping Office, which operates the facilities in Frankfurt-Griesheim and Eddersheim, whose green electricity is sold by the Frankfurt energy provider Mainova under the “Novanatur” tariff. The federal government has grown historically. This is an advantage in the current conflict, says Stephan Momper, head of the agency. In addition, there is currently a pilot project on fish-friendly turbines in Eddersheim.

The situation at the hydropower plants in Mühlheim and Offenbach is different. The private operator is currently fighting for a renewal of its operating license.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, the company should let half of its water flow over the weirs in the future. This would potentially shred less fish, Momper says. The downside: “You can generate less electricity.”

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