Water power | One of the most controversial dam projects in Finland collapsed

One of Finland of the most controversial dam projects remain unrealized, at least for the time being.

Kemijoki Oy announced on Friday that the company has decided to abandon the Sierilä power plant project.

Kemijoki in the bulletin it is stated that “based on the investigations carried out, the construction of the Sierilä power plant would no longer be possible without significant project risks”.

The reasons are rising costs and running out of time. The costs have been inflated especially by the increase in construction costs and interest rates. The permits for the project require that construction should have started in May at the latest.

To Kemijoki The hydroelectric dam planned for the southeast side of Rovaniemi has been prepared since the beginning of the 2000s, and its various stages have been complained about for environmental reasons numerous times.

During that time, the estimated costs of the project have tripled. By early summer, however, the road to complaints had been exhausted and the project had both a water management permit and a building permit.

However, according to HS's information, the vast majority of the companies that are Kemijoki's water shareholders were against starting the project in this situation. The opposition was due to the fact that the costs of the investment would have been paid by them in the form of a more expensive electricity price.

Important shareholders include, for example, the energy company Fortum and the forest company UPM.

The costs of the project would have been around 200 million euros. The annual energy production of the power plant would be according to the company's invoices was 155 gigawatt hours. It corresponds to the annual energy needs of approximately 22,000 four-person households.

It would have been Finland's 23rd largest hydropower plant.

Kemijoki Oy has justified the project by combating climate change and the growing need for regulating power. According to the company, Sierilä's project is also defended by the fact that it would have been built on a river that has already been greatly altered by numerous hydroelectric plants.

The Sierilä dam would have come between two existing dams.

Environmental organizations, on the other hand, have mostly opposed the project. The Finnish Nature Conservancy, Finnish recreational fishermen and WWF recently published on the topic an opinion piece in Helsingin Sanomat.

According to them, Sierilä would have covered “the last free rapids of the middle course of Kemijoki.”

“A hydropower plant would endanger the habitats of several endangered species and destroy the best fly fishing spots in the Rovaniemi region. It would be a death blow to whitefish, trout, grayling and river pearl mussels living in the area. Sierilä's rapids are also important for people,” the organizations reasoned.

of Kemijoki Oy the politicians sitting in the supervisory board are the chairman Johanna Ojala-Niemelän (sd) with the management tried until the last to save the project by appealing to the company's board so that it would consider the matter further.

Because of Sierilä, the Council held an extra meeting at the end of November.

Among the politicians of the Administrative Council, the implementation of Sierilä was opposed only by the Greens Krista Mikkonen.

Kemijoki Oy applied for an investment subsidy of 60 million euros for the Sierilä project already in the fall, and in December the government changed the regulation on energy subsidies so that subsidies can also be granted to hydropower.

Ojala-Niemelä assessed to HS on Friday, before the news of Sierilä's collapse came out, that Sierilä's chances of getting taxpayer support would have been good with the regulation change.

View of Kemijoki in Vaarala, Rovaniemi. Rovaniemi would have received property tax income from Sierilä, but on the other hand, Kemijoki Oy had hoped that the property tax could be reduced to increase the profitability of the project. Picture: Jukka Gröndahl / HS

Kemijoki CEO of Oy Tuomas Timonen on Friday blamed the failure of the project on Finland's permit system and complaints about the project.

“There is a kind of judicial murder taking place here,” Timonen said. “Time ran out.”

He was frustrated that the project had been prepared for more than 20 years and then in the end all the necessary permits were obtained in such a tight time window that “a year's work had to be done in half a year”.

The last delay was caused by appeals about the extension of the water management permit, for which the Supreme Administrative Court ultimately did not grant an appeal permit.

“By complaining, we were able to take this to such a limit that this could no longer be carried out according to the law.”

Timonen responds to the environmental criticism by stating that the authorities and the courts finally made their decision, which was positive from the point of view of the project.

“It's always about balancing. An industrial project always has environmental effects.”

Was this project important to you personally?

“For me, the fight against climate change, security of supply and energy security are important,” answered Timonen.

Does this mean that Sierilä will never be built?

“You should never say that. But this time I did.”

Kemijoki has been harnessed for hydropower since the late 1940s, which is why, for example, Kemijoki's original salmon population has become extinct. In the picture, Kemijoki Oy's power plant in Valajaskoski. Picture: Rio Gandara / HS