This is another in our series of stories identifying new technologies and actions that can slow climate change, reduce its impacts or help communities cope with a rapidly changing world.
An American eel slipped through a pipe, careening toward a spinning turbine blade. A moment later, the eel emerged on the other side. “It was clear that the eel looked fine,” Gia Schneider recalls. She was part of a research team that cheered its success. Then they got another eel ready to go.
As its CEO, Schneider runs Natel Energy in Alameda, Calif. This company works on hydropower. A type of clean energy, it uses spinning turbines to turn the motion of water into electricity. So why was this team sending eels on a water-park-like thrill ride?
Most turbines have sharp, blade-like edges. These kill many of the eels and other fish unlucky enough to encounter them. Schneider realized that a different type of blade might let fish through unharmed while still spinning fast enough to make electricity. So her team has unveiled one. They gave it a thick edge and a twisty shape. Now scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., were testing it. During the experiment, 131 eels went through the turbine. All survived.
To slow climate change, people must switch from fossil fuels to greener, cleaner sources of power. These are sources that won’t spew greenhouse gases into the air. Hydropower is one option. Solar and wind are two others. “Energy consumption underpins everything about our civilization,” says Schneider. Changing how we make energy won’t be easy. But many experts believe this shift not only is possible but also necessary.
We have to be careful, though, as we build new clean-energy systems. Eels are just one of many living things already using the rivers we may want to dam. Birds and bats fly through the air where wind turbines will spin. Whales and seals will swim in and around ocean wind farms. And…
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