In 2019 Tony Grassi, owner of The Mill at Freedom Falls, partnered with Natel to install the first Restoration Hydro Turbine, retrofitting a once-purposeless sawmill with enough power to meet the needs of the small community of Freedom, Maine.
Like Tony's Mill, there are hundreds of existing small dams in the United States that are no longer being used as a power source or were constructed for non-power purposes. By retrofitting them with FishSafe hydro turbines, Natel is working with communities to leverage the infrastructure they already have to generate new, clean energy that could deliver close to 10 percent of the country's energy demand, while restoring safe downstream fish passage.
Sterling summarizes Natel's fish passage research and emphasizes how the RHT can positively impact fish inthe St. Croix and St. Lawrence watersheds.