In the European research project “Fish Friendly Innovative Technologies for Hydropower (FIThydro)”, experts are investigating existing hydropower plants at 17 locations in eight countries in cooperation with industrial partners, including Voith. The four-year EU project studies the impact of hydropower plants on ecosystems, especially on fish.
A total of 13 research institutes and 13 companies in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Great Britain, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, and Spain are participating. The chair of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) coordinates and manages the EU project. The project received EUR 7.2M in funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 727830 and the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research (SNF).
First, the project partners analyzed and extended existing methods, technologies, and approaches to assess the various impacts of hydropower plants and possible protective measures on fish populations. For this purpose, measurements were carried out at the test sites and in laboratories. In the second part of the project, possible measures for power plant modernization as well as new tools for decision support for hydropower operators and planners were tested.
As a project partner, Voith Hydro, in cooperation with the TUM, contributed to the further development of simple and innovative methods for assessing the fish passage through water turbines.
These and other new solutions, evaluation methods, and technologies such as a hazard index for fish populations, fish migration simulations, and an open-access decision support tool for hydropower planning – can provide hydropower operators with important support in assessing and planning protection measures. Furthermore, these assessment methods can be applied during the design phase of water turbines for new and modernization projects. The knowledge gained enables an optimized hydraulic design for improved fish passage.
