BKW is a Swiss engineering company with over 120 years of experience in the hydropower-plant sector, running 40 plants in Switzerland and another 19 in Italy. Changes to the Swiss Water Protection Act have mandated the requirement for all Swiss hydropower plants to be ecologically renovated by 2030. In the future, plant operators will be obliged to guarantee fish safe and unobstructed upstream and downstream passage past dams and weirs. So, by 2030 BKW will have implemented around 40 ecological renovation measures at 14 hydropower plants. Research is still in progress to find the best possible downstream fish migration solution. Findings at the Bannwil pilot plant will serve as a basis for the new downstream migration ladders, and experts in the field are monitoring the results as a model to test technical viability and provide financial orientation. The programme of ecological renovation at the various hydropower plants is one of the largest projects in the BKW portfolio. Since the technical amendments were statutory directives, BKW’s costs of around 300 million Swiss Francs are to be covered by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment.

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