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.
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.
Natel Energy Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Gia Schneider, has been nominated to continue her service on the International Hydropower Association Board.
This photo of Staff Mechanical Engineer Kelsey Seto by Staff Mechanical Engineer Johannes Santen won 5th place of all submissions in the USAID E4SEA Women in Energy Design and Photo Contest.