Planned Demonstration of the Alden “Fish-Friendly” Hydropower Turbine in the U.S. and France

There is an increasing demand for generating renewable energy throughout the world in an environmentally-friendly manner.  Hydropower has demonstrated the potential to meet this demand.  A new technology that has the potential to generate hydropower in an environmentally-friendly way is the Alden turbine.  The Alden turbine is designed to allow the safe passage of downstream migrating fish through the turbine eliminating the need for expensive screens and bypasses and lost generation associated with spillage for fish passage.  The Alden turbine was initially conceptualized and tested at a pilot scale in the laboratory for fish survivability through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) former Advanced Hydro Turbine Systems Program.  More recently, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has supported comprehensive research and development of the Alden turbine to optimize its biological and generating performance.  A commercial design of the Alden turbine was recently completed during a project co-funded by the DOE.  As a next step, EPRI is planning and implementing two field demonstration projects to assess the turbine’s actual performance.  The first demonstration site is Brookfield Renewable Power’s School Street Hydroelectric Project on the Mohawk River in New York State.  In response to a 2011 DOE funding opportunity, EPRI was awarded a three-year grant of $1.5 million with cash match requirements to support the turbine’s installation and testing at the School Project.  The second demonstration site, selected as a result of an EPRI-sponsored 2010 industry solicitation, is Électricité de France’s (EDF) Pébernat Hydroelectric Project located in the town of Bonnac in Southwest France.  This presentation will review the design and predicted field performance (fish passage survival >97% and turbine efficiency ~94% at BEP) of the Alden turbine with a particular focus on the biological performance of the turbine.  In addition, it will touch on the activities conducted in 2011 and 2012 that will further the design, installation, and funding of the field demonstration projects.