As hydropower development continues along rivers around the world, helping migratory fish to come back to their natural environments has become urgent. This puts pressure on the energy companies to find new ways to increase the acceptability of hydro in the public, which tends to side with biodiversity while demand for energy is rising. The companies creating dams are forced but also eager to develop solutions that are outside their usual domain, to gain people’s trust by doing good.

As one of the most sustainable energy companies in Europe, Fortum looks to reduce their environmental impact wherever they can. Hydropower is one of the key renewable energy sources in the Nordics, and Fortum operates around 150 hydropower plants in Finland and Sweden altogether. Since it was created in 1878, Hydro energy has been by far the largest renewable energy source worldwide. Although it provides low-carbon, clean, eco-friendly electricity, the hydropower dams prevent thousands of fish from returning home every year. A problem which has been unsolved for almost two centuries. This creates a conflict for Fortum, for which they are also criticized by the public and in the media. Therefore, they need to find solutions that help them make existing renewable energy sources even more sustainable by enhancing their impact on biodiversity. We wanted the public to recognize hydropower as an eco-friendly way to produce energy.

Finland is said to be the country of a thousand lakes. And those lakes are connected to the sea by mighty rivers. Throughout history, communities have been built by those rivers, since they have provided food and energy for the developing nation. Hydropower is by far the largest renewable worldwide, producing over twice as much energy as wind, and over four times as much as solar. Sadly, rivers and other ecosystems that provide essential habitats to freshwater fish are under increasing pressure from global hydropower development. While dams can provide flood protection, energy supply, and water security, they also pose a significant threat to freshwater species. Dams block fish from moving along their natural pathways between feeding and spawning grounds, causing interruptions in their life cycles that limit their abilities to reproduce. As hydropower development continues along river basins around the world, helping migratory fish to come back to their natural environments has become urgent.

Fortum has been seen by the public as a distant corporation, even though their services are used everywhere in the society. However, their services are not very tangible or visible, and are even taken for granted. They are actually needed even more since the demand for energy is rising.

It is in their communications target to show to the greater public how they create value even beyond energy. Since fish have somewhat symbolic value in our society and opposing dams gets a lot of media coverage, our aim was to find a way to get positive attention to hydropower by showing that it is not a threat to fish’ living environment and a threat to biodiversity in general. We needed a real tangible solution to show what we do, as opposed to just traditional communications campaigns.

First, a deeper understanding of the scale of effect was needed. Studies have been carried out on over 10,000 fish species to measure the impact of dams on their habitats, evaluating around 40,000 existing and 3,700 planned hydropower dams. From that we knew that a possible solution would be scalable even beyond Fortum’s own dams.

Second, Fortum’s operational model embraces solving these difficult challenges as a joint effort. This was clearly a task we needed to find a partner to collaborate with, since this is not the main domain for an energy company. Fortum operates over 100 dams in the Nordics, so we needed to find one setting, where we knew the biodiversity was at a threat.

Third, we needed a model that could help us to bring forward data and insights that will help Fortum change the perception of hydropower in general.

Fortum partnered with FishHeart to bring a technological innovation of which the main objective is to provide migratory fish access to their natural spawning grounds. Besides that, the project restores biodiversity and helps support local fishing communities.

The innovation operates on three domains: 1. Attraction Flow: The device produces an additional attraction flow that helps fish find their way up the river. 2. Smart Detection: AI detects fish and collects real-time data and photos of the migration. 3. Elevation: In the tube, fish are propelled upstream over the hydropower plant unharmed, even longer distances and steep ascents.

This project solves a 200-year-old challenge and allows fish to pass by across dams and move up the river stream. This is a tangible real action that Fortum pushed out to affect the perception. The data from the installment in Leppikoski dam is now used in the hydropower campaigns made by Fortum.

The data gave us valuable insights on the river ecosystem. Over 13,300 fish transferred per year, in the single unit in Leppikoski. 22 species are preserved in Finland. We are giving a second chance to Oulujärvi lake trout, an endangered species.

The perception of hydropower as an eco-friendly solution to generate energy has improved by 30 % in the Finnish public. We saw an increase also in the public demand for more hydropower, which rose by 15 %.

The technology by FishHeart is going to be adopted in 20 countries in 2024. The patent is active in 16 countries, and in process in 38 more countries. The US Department of Energy grants 1,3 million USD in funding for FishHeart.

Fortum showed an example to other energy companies, while the FishHeart technology is being implemented by them to even more rivers. This is true value beyond energy – beyond company silos.