It was believed that the Alpine rivers were already well corseted with dams and turbines. But the rush for blue gold continues in the mountains, at the risk of causing irreversible damage to the last wild waterways of the Alps. “There has been a shift over the last twenty years,” says David Doucente, fish engineer for the Hautes-Alpes fishermen’s federation. Until the 2000s, there were a few hydroelectric power stations in the Alps, but these projects were supervised by EDF with measured developments. Since then, many private operators have filed applications and we have started to notice overexploitation of the waterways. »

Neither state services nor the professional union France Hydro Electricité have precise figures on this deployment. Their inventory had, however, already been carried out by a study engineer in 2021 in the departments of Haute-Savoie, Savoie, Alpes-Maritimes and Hautes-Alpes. As part of his dissertation written in the EcoFlows laboratory at the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRAe), Nils Dumarski listed the power plants installed since 1900 whose power is less than 10 kilowatts. Of the 000 hydroelectric dams recorded, 323 were erected between 124 and 2000, while only 2020 were built between 116 and 1950. “The pace of installation of micro hydroelectric power plants in the four departments studied is accelerating, particularly since the 2000s. “This dynamic is particularly important above 2000 meters,” he notes.

An increase that is corroborated by Reporterre data. Thanks to the national register of electricity production and storage installations, we have identified 347 small active dams in the Alps, of which at least 167 have been created or renovated over the last twenty years.
The State is banking on hydroelectricity

This deployment is explained by the State's desire to increase hydroelectricity in its energy mix. To achieve this, EDF has purchased its production at a preferential rate since 2007. Since 2016, France has also been conducting calls for tenders for the operation of new small hydroelectric power plants, which guaranteed the winners additional remuneration. These financial incentives have promoted the professionalization of the sector and the multiplication of projects.

Alas, most French rivers are “already widely exploited and present few additional opportunities in the long term,” underlines the Energy Futures 2050 report from the high-voltage electricity transmission network manager RTE.

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