Small hydro certificates

In some countries, electricity produced by hydro plants with installed capacity of below a certain size ( e.g. 15 MW in the Netherlands, 10 MW in Belgium or 1,5 MW in Sweden) has been granted certain benefits, - reduced grid fees, reduced energy taxes or direct subsidies.

Some people are of the opinion that small-scale hydro plants are more environmentally friendly than big-scale ones (less impact on nature due to smaller reservoirs.). But recent developments are in fact reversing this trend, since it is now more common to give benefits to hydro plants depending on when the plant was built and not dependent on its size.