Small-scale hydropower plants have the least preferable environmental performance with respect to conflicts with red-listed species in our study (Fig. 5), when assigning both a 2 km and a 10 km buffer zone. The higher conflict level between small-scale plants and red-listed species is likely due to the fragmented nature of development of small-scale power plants. This affects large areas when a buffer is added to many small sites, compared to fewer, larger and more concentrated encroachments in large-scale hydropower plants and wind-plants, even though the direct land occupation is smaller in the small plants.