
24 March 2023
Swedish hydropower centre for new technology and biodiversity
Luleå University of Technology, together with research and knowledge company Energiforsk, has been assigned responsibility for running the Swedish Centre for Sustainable Hydropower for the next five years. This is the Swedish Energy Agency’s biggest competence centre, with a budget of SEK 280 million.
Luleå University of Technology will be conducting research into sustainable, safe and optimised hydropower together with the business community, the public sector and six other universities. This research focuses on contributing to a sustainable energy system and improving conditions for biodiversity in our regulated rivers.
“Hydropower will play an increasingly important role as an energy resource providing regulation and storage in the fossil-free society of the future. We want to conduct research into safer, more efficient, more flexible and more eco-friendly hydropower. Technological development must take place while also protecting biodiversity. The centre provides an opportunity for technology researchers and biologists to collaborate in a completely new way,” Staffan Lundström says, Professor of Fluid Mechanics at Luleå University of Technology and director of the centre.
Hydropower important for the green transition
As Sweden, Europe and the world become electrified, hydropower plays an important part in transforming the energy system through flexible, reliable, secure and sustainable electricity supply. We need to protect the biodiversity of our waterways in order to achieve these environmental goals. This requires new information on the balance between electricity production from hydropower, the environmental impact of hydropower, safety and social issues. The Hydropower R&D Days, to be held in Luleå on 23 and 24 March 2023, have been organised by the Swedish Centre for Sustainable Hydropower and will herald the start of the centre’s sustainable hydropower research initiatives. The centre has spent the first six months of the year setting up projects and international collaborations in research fields related to the environment and society, civil engineering and hydraulic engineering, and hydropower technology. These initiatives are now being presented. “Sustainable hydropower – what is it?” is one of the questions to be discussed during the R&D Days.
“This centre will not only help to provide know-how for sustainable hydropower, it will also help to ensure a sustainable supply of skills in the field. The centre will be taking on around 30 doctoral students and postdocs for projects within and between our three work packages; Environment & Society, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Turbines and Generators. It is incredibly important to ensure that we go on attracting talented people who can work with these issues in the future. We will also be working hard to develop our international collaborations so that we can take up a stronger position as a leading knowledge country when it comes to sustainable hydropower,” says Carolina Holmberg, deputy programme coordinator for the centre at Energiforsk.
With a focus on technology, environment and people
Since industrialisation began, hydropower has provided Swedish society and industry with a unique combination of safe, low-cost and low-emission renewable electricity generation and will continue to be key to Sweden’s electricity generation and storage. Its environmental impact on waterway biodiversity is well known, as is its impact on nearby communities, particularly for people who are reliant on waterways for their activities or leisure. That is why the Swedish Centre for Sustainable Hydropower will be focusing on interdisciplinary research and innovative solutions over the next five years, in close collaboration with industry and the public sector, with emphasis on technology, environment and people. Around 400 of Sweden’s hydropower dams may have a significant social impact if they fail. That is why research is also being carried out to make hydropower safer.
The Swedish Centre for Sustainable Hydropower is led by Luleå University of Technology in collaboration with Energiforsk. The centre has more than 30 active partners in its organisation: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Uppsala University, Karlstad University, Umeå University, Lund University, Chalmers University of Technology, Vattenfall Vattenkraft AB (inc. VIAB), Fortum Sverige AB, Sydkraft Hydropower AB, Statkraft Sverige AB, Skellefteå Kraft AB, Holmen Energi AB, Jämtkraft AB, the municipality of Umeå, Tekniska verken i Linköping AB, Mälarenergi, Karlstad Energi, Jönköping Energi AB, Sweco Sverige AB, AFRY, WSP Sverige AB, Norconsult AB, the Hydroelectric Environmental Fund, Boliden Mining AB, LKAB, Zinkgruvan Mining AB, Andritz Hydro Sweden branch, Voith Hydro AB, Rainpower Kristinehamn AB, Svenska kraftnät, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and the Swedish Energy Agency.
Contact
Staffan Lundström
- Professor and Head of Subject
- 0920-492392
- staffan.lundstrom@ltu.se
- Staffan Lundström
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