How big can a fish be and still pass through the Restoration Hydro Turbine (RHT) safely? Pretty big! This passage test of 186 rainbow trout measuring up to 500 mm (~19.7 in) in length found no meaningful difference between the fish passed through a 1.9 m (~ 6.2 ft) diameter RHT and the control group, who were not passed through any turbine.
This fish passage test was conducted jointly by Natel Energy and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (@PNNL) in the spring of 2022, at Natel's Monroe hydropower plant in Culver, Oregon.
For more info about Natel's fish passage testing and peer-reviewed papers, visit our fish passage page.
My Climate Journey newsletter published an article by Gia Schneider explaining how innovation in hydropower can benefit both the grid and global ecosystems.
We’re proud to be included on the 2022 Global Cleantech 100 list!
The RHT was a finalist this year at the MERLIN Innovation Awards, which recognize widely-applicable solutions for restoring the function or enabling the financial benefit of freshwater ecosystems.