Revolutionary New Fish Friendly Hydropower


 Revolutionary New Fish Friendly Hydropower

hydro power projects 300x264 Revolutionary New Fish Friendly HydropowerA revolutionary new turbine technology for Revolutionary New Fish Friendly Hydropower hydropower plants is one step closer to its first commercial deployment. The Alden Fish-Friendly Turbine could change the game for hydropower generation in the United States, and it is likely to have significant export potential.

Scientists and engineers at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Alden Laboratories, and their partners have designed a new turbine that reduces fish passage injury and mortality, while effectively maintainingpower production. EPRI recently released the full technical report of prototype testing. Building on over a decade of support from the Energy Department, EPRI and its project partners were recently selected to deploy and test the Alden fish-friendly hydropower turbine over the next three years. EPRI plans to deploy the 10 megawatt Alden Turbine at the Brookfield Renewable Power School Street Project in Cohoes, New York, bringing project’s generation capacity to 48 megawatts.

Hydropower already provides nearly 7 percent of the nation’s electricity, and it holds tremendous potential for expansion. Yet that promise comes with the unique challenge of developing water as a renewable energy resource in a way that minimizes disruption to sensitive ecosystems and mitigates impacts to fish and other aquatic wildlife. Some hydropower projects have created issues for migratory fish, such as blocked passages and turbine-induced mortality. Spilling water or installing bypass technologies can allow fish to pass through unharmed, but they also compromise a significant amount of power production—to the tune of 8,500 MWh per year and at a cost upwards of $700,000 per project.  To better address

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Hydropower runs through it


 

istock vannbilde 600pix 1 300x200 Hydropower runs through itRainPower a Norwegian technology company has set up a new subsidiary company in Sweden and has also entered into a cooperation agreement with engineering firm KTAB to become a fully integrated provider of hydropower technology and services in the Swedish market. Since it was set up in 2007, RainPower has developed proprietary turbine technology at its hydropower laboratory in Trondheim.

CEO Svein Ole Strømmen of RainPower said “Establishing Rainpower in Norway has been very successful, and we feel that the time is right to take a look at the exciting hydropower market in Sweden.” “KTAB is an engineering company that has developed  hydropower expertise in Kristinehamn. This expertise combined with a highly qualified technical team in Kristinehamn and innovative research environment in Norway will create a competitive total supplier of hydropower services in Sweden for planning, production, maintenance and service.

RainPower has employees at Kjeller, Sørumsand in Trondheim, Oslo and Hangzhou in China. The company, which is based on Kvaerner’s and General Electric’s hydropower expertise, supplies, hydroelectric turbines and all associated equipment for the production of clean electricity.

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Scotland to be World HydroPower leader


The state-owned utility Scottish Water is to be given new powers to build windfarms, hydro schemes hydropower 1920458 150x150 Scotland to be World HydroPower leaderand “green” power stations in partnership and competition with established energy companies.
The company, one of the country’s last remaining state-owned firms, could generate £300m or more in extra revenues by using its 80,000 acres of land and vast pipe network for renewable energy projects.
The proposal was unveiled by Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party, in his government’s last legislative programme before next May’s Scottish elections. He claimed it would turn Scotland into “the world’s first hydro-economy – wisely exploiting our water to help drive our economy”.
Salmond is resisting pressure to convert Scottish Water into a mutualised company under public ownership, similar to Welsh Water, to generate much-needed revenue and offset cuts of up to £3.7bn expected in next month’s spending review. Read on