📌 URGENT: Sell these stocks by March 14 📌

Two of America's largest banks - Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan - have quietly warned their richest clients to prepare for it. [WSW Logo]( At times, our affiliate partners reach out to the Editors at Wall Street Wizardry with special opportunities for our readers. The message below is one we think you should take a close, serious look at. [devider] Small hydropower plants have long sustained remote communities in the Alps – but there is a growing debate over their environmental impact. T The Furtalm, an idyllic mountain farm in South Tyrol in the northern Italian Alps, is surrounded by waterfalls. Their rushing sound fills the air, along with the bells from a small herd of grazing cows. Hikers sit at long tables outside a tiny farm kitchen, enjoying hearty meals of homemade cheese dumplings and apple strudel. Having arrived after a bracing hike, I order a plate of dumplings, and enjoy the view over a nearby stream. Apart from looking very charming, the stream is doing me a practical favour: it is helping provide my lunch. A tiny hydropower plant, tucked away out of sight, generates the electricity for the entire farm: enough to run the milking machine by the stable, the fridge in the dairy where the cheese is made, and all the kitchen appliances used to make my dumplings. "Electricity is free here, it's always been that way. When it's right next to your door, you don't have an electricity counter," says Alexandra Larch, who runs the farm and restaurant with her family in the summer months, and spends the winters in the valley. Her parents have an even smaller hydro plant next to their own mountain farm: it's so tiny they have to switch off everything else in the house before they switch on the milking machine. As I enjoy my delicious dumplings, I can hear a faint clanging sound in the distance. It comes from a construction site for another hydro plant, built by a local cooperative. South Tyrol and its Alpine neighbours are known as Europe's hydro powerhouses, mainly thanks to their large plants, which mark parts of the landscape with their valley-spanning reservoirs and giant pipes. Hydropower generates more than 7,300 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year in South Tyrol, some 90% of its total electricity production, enough to export about half of it to other Italian regions in the summer months. Over 80% of that hydropower output is generated by only 30 big plants. But in recent years, another aspect of the Alpine energy supply has been gaining increasing attention: hundreds of small hydropower plants, many rooted in traditional cultures of self-sufficiency and self-determination. You might also like: The floating solar that tracks the Sun The surprising benefits of blue spaces Spain's magnificent medieval waterways There are about 1,000 hydropower plants in South Tyrol, and the vast majority of them are small or medium-sized – ranging from tiny ones powering a single farm, to clusters of more sizeable ones covering an entire valley's supply. Most are run-of-river diversion plants, meaning a part of the stream is diverted, typically by small dams or weirs, through a pipe to a turbine. (There is no standard global definition of small hydro, and the upper limit can vary hugely between countries, but international reports tend to define it as up to 10 megawatt installed capacity. In South Tyrol, small typically means up to 220 kilowatt (kW) capacity, and medium, up to 3 megawatts [MW]). Elsewhere in the Alps, the picture is similar, with a multitude of small or mid-sized plants allowing individual farms or villages to be self-sufficient, while typically making a modest contribution of only around 10% or so to national hydropower production. Advocates of small hydro present it as a relatively low-impact source of energy, with scope for global expansion. As rocketing energy prices and fears of blackouts, along with climate change, accelerate the quest to find alternatives to coal, gas and oil, the idea of a robust, renewable local energy source may sound very appealing. But critics argue that the ecological cost of small plants may be higher than previously thought – and needs to be carefully balanced against their benefits. The Furtalm farm and restaurant in South Tyrol, surrounded by waterfalls, harnesses the power of Alpine streams to generate its electricity (Credit: Sophie Hardach) The Furtalm farm and restaurant in South Tyrol, surrounded by waterfalls, harnesses the power of Alpine streams to generate its electricity (Credit: Sophie Hardach) A few months after my summer hike, in November, I call the Pflersch energy cooperative, which is behind the new power plant being built near the Furtalm, in the beautiful Pflersch Valley. The managing director of the cooperative, Franz Schwitzer, chuckles as he tells me that he is getting a lot of media requests these days: with the world gripped by an energy crisis, his resilient cooperative is attracting attention. In Brief: How sustainable is small hydropower? Historically, small hydropower helped bring electricity to many remote communities such as farms and villages in the Alps. As a legacy of this decentralised energy landscape, there are still thousands of medium-sized, small and even tiny hydropower plants in the Alps, some powering entire valleys, others, a single farm, or even, a single milking machine. New ones have also been built, based on the assumption that their environmental impact is relatively low. However, criticism of small hydropower has been growing. There is mounting scientific evidence that their impact is larger than was previously thought, and that they can disrupt streams, damage habitats and harm migratory fish. Although small hydropower has faced criticism, those opposing it don't necessarily rule it out altogether. Rather, a common view is that the ecological impact and social and economic benefits have to be assessed carefully, case by case. The cooperative owns four small-to-medium-sized hydro plants in the valley, the biggest of which has an installed capacity of about 3 megawatts, as well as the one under construction. Its roughly 300 members, such as farmers, villagers, small companies and small hotels, pay only 3.1 euro cents (3.2 US cents/2.7p) per kilowatt/hour (10 euro cents/10 US cents/8.7p including taxes), up to a consumption of 1,250kWh per month. (At the time of reporting, the market price in Italy was 66 euro cents (69 US cents/57p) per kWh for the typical household, including taxes). The cooperative also supplies non-members at the market price, such as big hotels and a ski lift. For most of the year, the hydro power it generates is enough to make the Pflersch Valley self-sufficient. "If the Italian grid were to collapse, it wouldn't be a problem for us during nine months of the year – spring, summer and autumn – given normal weather. We'd just switch our network to 'isolated operation' [for self-consumption]," says Schwitzer. In winter, the cooperative purchases additional energy from the market. If it could store the energy from the warmer months, it would be self-sufficient all year round. The community-centred model is not unusual in the region, where small firms and cooperatives are seen as adding diversity and resilience to the energy sector. According to Thomas Senoner, the director of South Tyrol's public agency for the sustainable use of water resources, part of the region's energy policy is to support rural life in the mountains, including traditional cooperatives. To people whose lives are currently blighted by soaring energy prices, such self-sufficiency may seem like the ultimate luxury. But as Schwitzer points out, South Tyrol's cooperatives were a result of necessity, and extreme marginalisation. The traditionally German-speaking region came under Italian rule in the early 20th Century. Some local families still harbour heartbreaking memories of the time when the central Italian government built big hydropower plants in their pristine valleys, flooding historical villages and centuries-old farms, to provide energy for Italian factories, not remote Alpine communities. Today, South Tyrol is still part of Italy but an autonomous province with control of its own energy resources. "The cooperatives were originally created because of a disadvantage, because we were in the periphery. In the 1950s, we would never have received electricity from the main grid," says Schwitzer. "So the people said to themselves, fine, we'll do it ourselves, we'll build our own power plant. They were brave pioneers who used their private funds as collateral to take out credit and pay for the turbines. And that disadvantage of the past, has now turned into an advantage." His cooperative has an especially long history: the local priest and three farmers started its first hydro plant in a hamlet called Boden almost 100 years ago. The priest recorded the event in his church chronicle in an awestruck tone: "14 November 1923. At 14.30 in the afternoon, Boden lit up with the glow of electric light for the very first time." Dear fellow investor, On March 14th, the U.S. Government is going to [make an announcement]( that could radically alter your retirement. Two of America's largest banks - Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan - have quietly warned their richest clients to prepare for it. And billionaires George Soros, Seth Klarman and David Tepper have sold 103 stocks in anticipation. It's not hard to see what's happening. But it's hard to know what to do to protect yourself and your future. That's why I put together [this free report for you.]( In it, I tell you [How to Protect Yourself from the Greatest Crisis Facing Retirees in 70 Years.]( Sincerely, Dylan Jovine CEO & Founder, Behind the Markets [WSW footer logo]( You are receiving this e-mail because you have expressed an interest in the Financial Education niche on one of our landing pages or sign-up forms on our website. If you {EMAIL} received this e-mail in error and would like to report spam, simply send an email to abuse@wallstreetwizardry.com. You’ll receive a response within 24 hours. Email sent by Finance and Investing Traffic, LLC, owner and operator of Wall Street Wizardry. This ad is sent on behalf of Behind The Markets, 4260 NW 1st Avenue, Suite # 55 Boca Raton, FL 33431 – 4264. If you would like to unsubscribe from receiving offers from Behind The Markets please [click here](. 221 W 9th St # Wilmington, DE 19801. © 2023 Wall Street Wizardry. 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