Freedom Falls hydropower plant.

Our Mission: support healthy rivers, promote biodiversity, and decarbonize the grid.

Mission-Driven Innovation

We believe clean energy development should also address biodiversity loss. Natel is engineering FishSafe hydropower that maintains or improves ecosystem health while delivering reliable, renewable power.

OuR Values

We aim to build the best solutions: for energy, for the environment, and for people.

Monroe Hydro from above.
Natel engineering team with a submersible RHT.
Working in the shop at Natel headquarters in California.
Alex and Kelsey fit runner into the turbine.
OuR Values

We know our business activities—from using computing resources to scale model testing to building projects—all have impact. We seek not only to do less harm, but more good. We are stewards of our planet and are responsible to the generations to come.

Owen fish testing
A volunteer eel safely passed through the turbine during an alewife test.

Our Story

Dan Schneider and friends.
Early 1980s

Motivated to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, inventor Dan Schneider works with friends from Texas A&M to find new ways to generate renewable energy, inspiring his children, Gia and Abe, at a young age.

Abe and Gia study the river.
Early 1990s

As teens, siblings Gia and Abe discover
the positive ecological benefit beaver dams can have on river health.

Abe and Gia start the company.
2009

Gia Schneider and Abe Schneider co-found Natel Energy, supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

First generation Natel hydro turbine at Buckeye pilot project.
2010

Buckeye pilot project
                           features Natel's first-generation hydro turbine.

2011 Natel tests at Alden.
2011

Natel conducts first hydrologic tests at Alden Research Laboratory.

Onsite hydraulic test.
2013

Natel commissions on-site hydraulic test facility.

Monroe Hydro Plant.
2015

Natel commissions first commercial project for Apple.

Natel's second generation turbine.
2016

Natel commissions second commercial
project using second-generation turbine.

Upstream Tech logo.
2017

Natel acquires Upstream Tech, author of HydroForecast watershed intelligence software.

Natel's RHT prior to install.
2019

Natel unveils the first FishSafe™ Restoration Hydro Turbine (RHT).

Freedom Hydro Plant in Maine.
2019

Natel installs the first RHT at The Mill at Freedom Falls in Freedom, Maine.

Natel RHT runner closeup.
March 2020

Natel announces $11M funding close with
Schneider Electric Ventures and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Monroe Hydro at night.
Fall 2020

Natel commissions Monroe Hydropower Project in Madras, Oregon, utilizing a utility-scale FishSafe™ RHT.

Fish passage testing at Monroe.
Fall 2020

Natel and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) conduct RHT passage tests with rainbow trout; results show 100% immediate and 48-hour survival for through-turbine passage.

Restoration Hydro Turbine in Oregon.
JULY 2021

Natel announces $20M Series B funding with
Breakthrough Energy Ventures to continue growing modern hydropower.

Rainbow trout
JUNE 2022

Natel and PNNL conduct turbine passage tests with large adult rainbow trout, resulting in >99% safe passage of some of the largest fish ever successfully passed through a compact hydro turbine.

American eels in fish tank.
August 2022

The scientific journal Transactions of the American Fisheries Society publishes Natel's peer-reviewed study conducted with PNNL; results show 100% immediate and 48-hour survival.

Sauerbrunn RHT installed.
OCTOBER 2022

Austrian utility Energie Steiermark opens the Sauerbrunn Hydro Project, featuring the first fully-submersible RHT and the first RHT to operate in Europe.

Gia with other leaders at the US Africa Business Forum in 2022
OCTOBER 2022

Natel and MyHydro announce, at the US-Africa Business Forum, their contract to install FishSafe™ RHTs in the first of 33 potential projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Juvenile alewife swim in a holding tank
March 2023

North American Journal of Fisheries Management publishes a peer-reviewed study by Natel and Kleinschmidt Associates; results show 98-100% survival of juvenile alewife passing through a 55cm-diameter RHT, measured immediately and after 48 hours.

CFD image of RHT
June 2023

RHT design envelope expands to 40 m (130 ft)  head & >99 m3/s (>3500 cfs) flow, meeting needs of 50% of hydro fleet

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Meet our team

We are entrepreneurs and technologists with top engineering, energy and finance credentials, passionate about climate solutions.

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