New, Fish-Friendly Hydro Turbine Designs Generate Power

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Hydroelectric turbine research and development in the U.S. is being advanced, funded and promoted by the U. S. Department of Energy (DoE) and the Department of the Interior (Washington, D.C.), which have awarded $17 million in funding for the research and development of advanced hydropower technology.

Hydropower turbine design engineers, manufacturers and operators are working to modernize existing turbines at U.S. hydroelectric power plants across the nation to increase and maximize system generation and environmental performance. According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) (Washington, D.C.), license renewals are expected at hundreds of existing hydroelectric dams in the next 20 years, creating an opportune time for owners to install turbines based on more efficient and fish-friendly designs.

According to Brock Ramey, Industrial Info's North American manger for Power Industry research, between 100 and 150 hydroelectric power plants in the U. S. are currently seeking relicensing approvals from FERC. For additional information, see July 13, 2011, article - Can Clean and Green Hydropower Maintain its Share of U.S. Electricity Mix?

Older hydro turbine runners, installed decades ago, were designed with one thing in mind: maximizing power output from the flow of water through the turbine. Although fish ladders were typically built for migratory fish, little thought was given to the fish injury and mortality caused by passage through the turbines or the lower levels of dissolved oxygen in downstream water.

Fish mortality rates range from 5% for the current least harmful turbines to more than 30% for some of the more damaging turbines. Fish survival through a hydro turbine is a complicated function of gap sizes, runner blade angles, wicket gate openings and water passageway flow patterns. When migratory species such as Chinook and Coho Salmon, Coastal Cutthroat Trout, Steelhead, Sturgeon, and American Shad return from their spawning ground upstream, they must pass multiple hydroelectric dams and hydro turbines to complete their life cycle. The newer designed turbines will significantly improve on fish mortality without reducing turbine output.

Newer turbine designs, which are more fish-friendly, have come into operation at several hydropower stations, significantly improving fish mortality, while increasing hydropower output. Modernizing hydropower plants built 50 years ago could eventually improve plant power output by as much as 15%, making a fish-friendly retrofit project economically feasible.

Alden Research Laboratory Incorporated (Holden, Massachusetts) is developing a fish-friendly hydroelectric turbine under the U.S. Department of Energy's (DoE) Advanced Hydro Turbine Systems (AHTS) program and continued under the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) (Palo Alto, California). The turbine looks similar to a corkscrew, with three blades with no gaps. The turbine rotates more slowly than other turbines. According to EPRI, the turbine runner rotates slower, yet the outside edge turns at the same speed as traditional turbines, so that it generates the same amount of electricity. The design results in less of a chance of injury.

Fish and eel survival rates have improved up to 98% through the new designs of turbines, which is one example of the advances in computational engineering and design being implemented to replace older hydro technologies.

Voith Hydro (York, Pennsylvania), EPRI and Alden Research have now brought the advanced fish-friendly turbine design to market, and it is being installed in several hydroelectric facilities throughout the U. S.

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