This thesis explores the long-term consequences of hydropower projects by investigating two cases of hydropower, representative for different time periods, and regions throughout the history of hydropower projects within the Swedish context. This investigation informs about the aftermath of different hydropower projects in the face of present-day concerns and the prospects of a green transition and green industrialisation. The Laholm hydropower project is an example of an interwar project in the Swedish South within the county of Halland finished in 1932. The Akkats hydropower project is an example of a post-World War II project within the Swedish Arctic in the county of Norrbotten finished in 1973. By focusing on the storytelling of change that transpired since the conception of the respective hydropower station until the early 2020s, this thesis captures how people recall their relationships to and interaction within the respective context. 

This thesis shows that the Laholm case has become a part of an environment where different actors and local cultural features have become increasingly viewed as a joint landscape. With time, the hydropower station has become relatively well-accepted at the local level, but also criticised at the regional and national levels for its role in the decline of the river ecosystem. The Laholm municipality, tourist industry, and local fisheries have grown dependent on the hydropower company arrangements. By contrast, Akkats was built in a more ethnopolitical context where hydropower is connected to the history of the exploitation of northward regions and the destruction of Sámi culture and land use. The Swedish Arctic is also a region where the state power board Vattenfall became one of the region’s biggest employers. As such, there is often a complex and multifaceted relationship towards hydropower in general. The Akkats hydropower project remains highly contested, but there are also ongoing efforts to emphasise the role that hydropower has had for past employment and present-day character of the region.

Part of the results have also pointed to the unknown variables at the time when the Laholm and Akkats hydropower stations were built that are of great consequence today. Climate change was not a topic of significance when the hydropower stations were built, attitudes have shifted, and the knowledge base about how different species are connected within ecosystems has also grown with time.