Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser Assessing the impact of small hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir: A study from north-western Himalayan region of India Ameesh Kumar Sharma ⁎ , N.S. Thakur Centre for Energy and Environmental Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Renewable energy Small hydro projects Environmental impact assessment Challenges Social impact ABSTRACT Small hydro projects (SHPs) are considered to be more eco-friendly as compared to large reservoir-based hydro projects. Throughout the world, SHPs are found to be more socially acceptable when compared with large ones because of less displacement of the population of the area and minimum harmful effects on flora and fauna. But still, in the western Himalayan region, these SHPs are under the radar of environmentalists and local communities because these projects sometimes cause the long-term negative impact on the environment due to lack of proper planning. The unwanted blockages in the mainstream, ruthless drilling, blasting of mountains and adverse effects on the downstream of the river due to migration of fish species are some of the environmental impacts. This research article presents the study of SHPs development in Jammu and Kashmir (J & K), as it is one of the hydro-rich states in the northwestern Himalayan region of India. In this paper, three SHPs from J & K are taken for the case study. To find out various sustainability issues related to these SHPs, a detailed discussion with the project affected people, interaction with the technical staff of these projects and in-depth field survey was carried out. 1. Introduction Due to increase in population and expanding industrialization, urbanization, modernization and salary development, the worldwide power utilization is relied upon and will keep on growing altogether in the coming years to come. As indicated by the global energy outlook 2013 by the United Nation Energy Data Organization, the current worldwide essential energy requirement is 1.60 × 1014 kWh and is anticipated to reach very near to 2.40 × 1014 kWh by 2040. It is normal that the global utilization of electricity will be multiplied in the coming 15–20 years. It is anticipated that China, India, Morocco and so forth will increase their electrical energy utilization to two-fold in the following one to two decades [1]. India is one of the fastest developing monetary forces of the world and is expected to become developed country by 2020. The globalization of Indian economy, because of strategy change in the late years have a stimulating effect on the different segments of the economy and is presently heading for balanced and quick development in the coming years. This rate of progress will be hard to manage because of foundation bottlenecks on account of financial constraints and energy availability in the country. Government under the foundation advancement system has started different measures, including setting up of a base money organization and looking for private investment for support ventures including influence area. To limit the gap between real power required and aggregate energy produced, tapping of unutilized hydropower potential in a quick and time bound way exhibits both, an open door and also a tough undertaking [2,3]. Hydropower is turning into the fastest developing renewable energy source in the world. Hydropower system produces around 20% of the world's power, and it is helping in the generation of energy with minimum emission of greenhouse gasses [4,5]. Since the large hydro projects have social, economical and environ- mental negative impacts because of which in many countries the main focus is shifted towards the installation of new small hydropower projects [6]. Especially after the oil emergency of 1973, enthusiasm for small hydropower projects (SHP) has been restored [7]. The global small hydropower potential is nearly about 173 GW [8]. The establish- ment of small hydropower potential is assessed to be 75 GW in 2012. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have the small hydropower potential evaluated at 18,077 MW, and of which only 3563 MW has been developed [8,9]. Table 1 shows the benefits which are highlighted by the other researchers throughout the world related to small hydro projects. So, it is evident from the Table 1 that these kind of hydropower projects are very popular among developing nations like India, Pakistan, South Africa and China, and as well as in the developed countries like Germany, Europe, and United http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.285 Received 28 October 2015; Received in revised form 5 February 2017; Accepted 29 May 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: ameesh.amar@gmail.com (A. Kumar Sharma). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 80 (2017) 679–693 1364-0321/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. MARK