Georgia: Renewable Energy Comes at Environmental Cost

TBILISI -- Over the past nine years, the United Nations Development Programme has helped transform Georgia’s once-nascent hydropower industry into one of the country’s most dynamic economic sectors in Georgia. Since 2006, Georgia has nearly quadrupled its electricity production to more than 10,000 M KwH in 2011, the majority of which comes from hydropower. The result has proven a success not just for Georgia, but also for the future of renewable energy in the broader South Caucasus region. Yet so far, environmentalists are hardly dancing in the streets. The success of Georgia’s small and medium-sized hydropower industry, which has a limited environmental impact, has paved the way for the construction of larger, and potentially environmentally destructive, hydropower projects across the country.