French Technology Site NeozOne Touts the RHT and Natel's Fish Passage Tests as Innovative Solution for Hydropower
Certainly, hydroelectricity is among the renewable energy options that have a low carbon footprint. However, it has the disadvantage of causing a significant loss of aquatic biodiversity. This problem mainly affects migratory fish such as herring and eels. Wanting to provide a solution, Natel Energy has developed a hydroelectric turbine that allows through-turbine fish passage with exceptional survival rates. In this article, we invite you to learn more about this new technology.
This American company has collaborated with third-party scientific partners to carry out studies on its improved hydropower turbine, the “Restoration Hydro Turbine” or RHT. In the test, these researchers used groups of young alewife measuring 87 to 132 mm in length. They released them into the water intake of the 55cm-diameter turbine, then caught them using a special trap placed downstream. As a result of this experiment, the research team found that the survival rate of alewife was 98.2%. Moreover, the company Natel Energy had already conducted another study on a similar RHT model, but with American eels. The results confirm the effectiveness of this technology in terms of fish survival. The survival rate of eels was particularly high (100%).
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