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 dams prevent thousands of fish from returning home every year. A problem which has been unsolved for almost two centuries.

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. Those power plants are by the greatest rivers, which are rich with biodiversity. The rivers are home to endangered migratory fish that try to find their way upstream to mate. This creates a conflict for Fortum, for which they are also criticized by the public and in the media. Therefore, they are on a mission 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. That is simply because their services are not very tangible. Therefore, they want to show how they create value even beyond energy. Since fish have somewhat symbolic value in our society and opposing dams get a lot of media coverage, we needed 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.

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, since this is not the main domain for an energy company. FishHeart, a local business, created by local fishermen, has been developing the technology suitable for our needs. For proof of concept, together with them we chose to install the innovation to Fortum’s Leppikoski dam. We knew that this would provide us tangible value to communicate outside. We could utilize it to show what we are doing on our behalf to make things better, while the demand for energy is rising.

Fortum and FishHeart partnered 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. The installment was proved to be valuable very early on, and this data is still used in the hydropower campaigns made by Fortum.

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. This project solves a 200-year-old challenge and allows fish to pass by across dams and move up the river stream. The scale of the project was to implement the solution on the Leppikoski Hydropower Plant, then in multiple hydro plans across Finland, and then, across the rest of Europe.

From the data, we gained valuable insights on the river ecosystem. Over 13,300 fish are 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.

Ever since the campaign, 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.