Story 1 min

Laxeleratorn: exploring innovative solutions for safe fish passage

Over the next 20 years, all Swedish hydropower production will be environmentally tested and equipped to meet modern environmental standards.

Short facts

Vattenfall’s Älvkarleby Laboratory, Sweden
Eel and post-spawning salmon (kelt)
Innovate solutions for up and downstream fish migration, investigate guidance efficiency, and study fish behaviour towards different rack designs and bypass systems
Continuous

The challenge is to find solutions that reduce negative effects on ecosystems and biodiversity while minimising the impact on electricity generation.

The Laxelerator, a large-scale laboratory with a long concrete channel and shallow water indoors, in Älvkarleby. Photo: David Aldvén.

In 2017, Vattenfall invested in “Laxeleratorn,” a large-scale laboratory for hydropower-related environmental and hydraulic experiments. The facility focuses on innovations for safe fish passage, including intake racks and behavioural guiding systems.

Research has been conducted on the efficiency of various guidance solutions, eel behaviour, and how salmon reacts to changes in water conditions to establish design criteria for bypass systems.

Over the past two years, several studies have been conducted on different behavioural guidance systems, including “dancing rods” and improved bypass solutions. During 2025 and 2026, we are carrying out a behavioural study on fish, focusing on feeding behaviour under different hydropeaking flow regimes. The aim of the study is to increase knowledge of how hydropower regulation affects growth and population development in regulated rivers.

More about biodiversity

Biodiversity and nature protection are a priority at Vattenfall. It is one of the focus areas in our environmental policy and therefore also a central part in our environmental work.