Video: Transforming our energy landscape with Natel's FishSafe Restoration Hydro Turbine
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.
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Natel is profiled as a case study in Solutions magazine by Danfoss
With a name appropriately coined from the phrase “natural electric,” Natel is focused on enabling a distributed or decentralized hydropower model featuring a large number of smaller projects.
Natel wins multiple prizes in DOE photo and video contest
Natel employees Kate Stirr and Betsy Pfeiffer and former employee Andy Baumgartner won 5 prizes total for their photos and video of Natel's FishSafe technology.
Natel's Hydro Turbine Technology Could Help Reverse Decline of Atlantic Coast River Herring, New Study Suggests
A new study published in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management shows safe downstream passage of juvenile alewife (river herring) through Natel’s modern FishSafe hydro turbine.
