Looking back on the past year and forward to the next, our team has a lot to be thankful for, and a lot of work ahead. For Natel, 2021 was a year of validation — bracketed by certifying our Freedom Falls plant as a Low Impact Hydro Installation at the start of the year, and by a suite of successful through-turbine fish passage tests in collaboration with Kleinschmidt Associates and Pacific Northwest National Lab in Q4 2021. Partnerships like these underscore our commitment to prioritizing positive ecological outcomes alongside reliable, renewable energy production.
Our 2021 study with PNNL found 100% survival rates for American eel passing through the RHT, and the peer-reviewed paper is now available from Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.