Spring has sprung with incredible new momentum for Natel Energy.
🏆 Natel has been named to TIME’s list of America’s Top GreenTech Companies for 2026—marking our second consecutive year receiving this prestigious honor.
🐟 A new peer-reviewed study on sturgeon passage in the Journal of Ecohydraulics confirms Natel’s FishSafe™ turbines eliminate the trade-off between power generation and fish survival. Conducted with researchers from UC Davis, the study positions Natel as the premier technology for modernizing global hydropower.
💪 We welcomed two seasoned hydropower executives to our Board of Directors, and are actively unlocking the future of firm, clean power in 2026.
Details below!
Natel listed again in TIME America’s Top GreenTech Companies 2026
Natel has been recognized (again) as being in the top 100 of TIME’s Top GreenTech Companies in America. The annual ranking highlights notable technology shaping the sustainability space, featuring companies that are focused on developing or providing technologies, products, or services that help mitigate or reverse the environmental impacts of human activity. Companies are ranked based on positive environmental impact, innovation, and financial strength. Natel was also recognized with this honor in 2025.
Get on Board: former GE & BPA leaders join Natel
Natel strengthens its leadership to accelerate grid modernization and global growth by appointing Yves Rannou (former President & CEO of GE Renewable Energy Hydro) as Executive Chairperson and public power veteran Steve Wright (former GM, Bonneville Power Administration and Chelan County PUD) to its Board of Directors.
Read all about it: new peer-reviewed study shows Natel FishSafe™ turbines represent a step change in fish survival
A new peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Ecohydraulics positions Natel FishSafe™ runners as a premier technology for modernizing the global hydropower fleet. For the study, Natel partnered with the Fangue Fish Conservation Physiology Lab at the University of California, Davis. Funded by a competitively awarded grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the study evaluated injury and survival outcomes for juvenile white sturgeon in a controlled experiment that compared a conventional runner profile (thin, straight leading edges) to a Natel FishSafe runner (designed with thick, slanted leading edges) at the same hydraulic head and rotational speeds.
Spoiler alert: the study’s data demonstrate that Natel FishSafe turbine blade profiles successfully eliminate the historic trade-off between clean energy generation and fish protection.
Natel's Alameda fish passage test facility—already one of the most advanced of its kind—just got even better. The facility completed a major upgrade and was evaluated by a nationally recognized testing laboratory (TÜV SÜD) that certifies compliance with all relevant safety standards. We marked the milestone by hosting attendees from the 2026 International Fish Passage Conference for an exclusive look at the facility.
In early 2026, we also commissioned our new strike rig: purpose-built for live-fish, dose-response blade strike testing at speeds nearly twice those achievable on other existing equipment, and already in use for DOE-funded American eel research in collaboration with USGS. Meanwhile, our scale-model hydraulic loop (which simulates real hydro plant conditions to evaluate through-turbine fish passage across runner profiles) has been running continuously, including a full week of witnessed client fish passage testing.
Natel fish passage test facility
Natel blade strike rig
Events round up
2026 is off to a brisk start on the conference front. In February Kate Stirr, Abe Schneider, and Sterling Watson hosted a workshop on FishSafe™ turbine design with a specific focus on Pacific Northwest site characteristics at the annual Northwest Hydroelectric Association conference in Portland, Oregon. Gia Schneider and Jessica Penrod also attended the conference.
At NHA's Water Power Week in Washington, D.C., Kate Stirr led the session, "Fish Passage and Habitat Restoration: Industry Perspectives on Successful Design and Delivery," featuring Sean Perkins, PE of American Hydro, on working with Natel FishSafe™ turbine designs to meet client fish passage requirements, and Brett Towler and Brian Sojkowski shared updates on the development status of the USFWS and NOAA joint Fish Passage Guidelines handbook which will include guidance on implementing turbines designed for safe fish passage.
Gia Schneider and Jessica Penrod attended the 2026 Northwest Hydroelectric Association Technical Workshop & NW Operators Forum in Wenatchee, Washington.
Natel took advantage of the nearby locale of the 2026 International Fish Passage Conference, hosted by UC Davis this year. Sterling Watson chaired the session "Understanding and Improving Turbine Passage Survival" and Abe Schneider presented in the session "Hydropower and Fish: E Flows, Advanced Monitoring, and Real Time Risk Management to Improve Fish Passage Outcomes". Natel also hosted a booth at the expo.
Sterling Watson and Abe Schneider presented at the Wasser Agenda 21 15th Information and Experience Exchange on the Restoration of Fish Passage in Bern, Switzerland on May 28.
Upcoming
This week, Harry Driscoll will present at British Hydropower Association’s Summer Conference in Nottingham on “Fish protection as a design principle: RHT propeller, Kaplan and Francis turbines.” Natel is also looking forward to participating in Rencontres France Hydro Électricité and NHA California Regional Meeting next week. If you’re attending those events, be sure to connect with us IRL!
Follow us on LinkedIn for upcoming details of a recently-completed feasibility study on retrofitting the ~900 MW St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) Power Project with FishSafe™ runners. The study quantifies the downstream fish passage benefits that could be unlocked at one of the Northeast's most significant hydropower facilities.
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