Fish Friendly Turbines forDownstream Migration : Literature review and case studies

Abstract: As the energy consumption is constantly increasing, the demand of renewable energy is increasing too. Thirtythree percent of the renewable energy production in Europe constitutes of hydropower. Hydropower is animportant energy source as it has stabilizing and storing functions, but it heavily affects biodiversity. This is mainlyby the dam constructions creating migration barriers for migrating species. This has severe impacts on the wholepopulations of fish, which are decreasing in number of individuals as the reproduction and growth is affected. Onesolution to enable downstream migration is fish friendly turbines. To assess the fish friendliness of these turbines,mathematical models can be used. They estimate the mortality of a fish during turbine passage, by calculating theprobability of a fish getting struck by a runner blade. The aim of this study is to investigate if passage through fishfriendly turbines could be an alternative for downstream migration of fish in hydropower plants, and examine theapplicability, especially for small-scale hydropower. To fulfill the aim, a literature review of fish friendly turbinesand two case studies were conducted. The fish friendly turbines included in the literature review were the MinimumGap Runner, Alden Turbine, Restoration Hydro Turbine (RHT), Archimedes’ Screw, Low Pressure Turbine andVery-low Head Turbine. The case studies were conducted on two small-scale hydropower plants owned byVattenfall Hydropower in the river Upperudsälven in the southwest of Sweden, using a turbine mortality modelmade by Johanna Stålered. The fish friendly turbines that were modeled in the case studies was the Alden Turbineand the RHT. After modeling and analyzing the results, conclusions regarding the applicability for the two powerplants and small-scale hydropower could be drawn. Modeling showed that for both Taxviken and Källsviken theAlden turbine gave the lowest mortality rate. However, the mortality of the Alden turbine was significantly lowerin Källsviken than in Taxviken, as it reached 58% for the largest fish in Taxviken and not even 3% for the largestfish in Källsviken. In Taxviken, both the RHT and the Alden turbine gave decreased mortality compared to theFrancis turbine. It was concluded that fish friendly turbines might not be the best option for small-scale powerplants, since in these power plants everything is of smaller size (turbine, guiding vanes etc.). That makes it difficultfor larger fish to fit, which increases the mortality, even if the turbine itself have fish friendly characteristics. Inaddition, what parameters should be included in decision-making regarding installation of fish friendly turbinesand areas for further investigation was suggested.