last highlighted date: 2024-11-05
Highlights
- Hydropower provides 40% of U.S. renewable electricity and delivers carbon-free power to over 30 million Americans.
- Unfortunately, roughly one in five fish passing through a conventional hydro turbine is killed. Thin, sharp blades spinning at very high speeds traditionally do not present an ideal outcome for the millions of fish that inhabit the waters where hydropower operates. Multiply this by the number of hydropower facilities a fish encounters when migrating downstream, and the cumulative impact on fish survival is staggering.
- Traditional options to improve fish protection at hydropower sites include fish screens and fish bypasses. These solutions aim to prevent fish from entering hydro turbines while enhancing their survival rates.
- both approaches are costly—requiring significant capital investment for installing screens or bypass systems, and ongoing expenses for maintenance, as fine screens often trap debris and need frequent cleaning.
- these methods reduce power generation by diverting water away from the turbines, lowering overall plant efficiency.
- Natel’s FishSafe turbine design use novel blade designs that are thick and slanted to create an airbag-like flow phenomenon that allows 98% of fish to safely pass through a hydro turbine, including even the most challenging-shaped fish (think eel).
- One of hydropower’s greatest challenges today is age. Over half of the existing hydropower fleet in North America and Europe is more than 50 years old. As these plants come up for relicensing, they will face new environmental requirements, particularly for fish passage. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity.
- need to be spent on modernizing hydropower plants by 2030, with $14 billion a year allocated to new equipment and upgrades at existing plants.
- how do we make these necessary upgrades in a way that not only modernizes our energy infrastructure but also meets the pressing need to protect aquatic biodiversity?
- By updating old infrastructure with turbines that are designed to be safe for fish, hydropower plant operators can meet relicensing requirements for fish passage without additional costly modifications. In many cases, upgrading turbines can result in increased energy production, making it a win-win for both the environment and the energy industry.
- And with 16 GW of hydro licenses set to expire between 2020 and 2035, there is an urgent need to draw attention to newer hydropower innovations that can give owners and operators the modernizations they need to ensure renewable hydropower remains online.