Before a fish passage or protection technology is selected for installation at an intake, it is important to ensure that it has a high probability of being successful from both a biological and engineering standpoint. Laboratory evaluations with species and life stages of interest are a cost-effective way to assess the general and site-specific applicability of any technology before committing to larger-scale pilot projects or full-scale installations. Just as important, engineering performance can be evaluated to determine debris handling capabilities and reliability of system components.
Alden’s fisheries scientists and engineers have conducted many laboratory and field evaluations examining the biological and engineering performance of existing and developing fish passage and protection technologies. The goal of these evaluations is to provide our clients with valuable information and data that can be used to fully assess the potential of a selected technology to meet biological and engineering performance requirements after installation.
Our fish testing facility has been used for over 30 years to perform biological and engineering evaluations of all types of technologies with 33 fish species. We also conduct pilot-scale and prototype testing in the field. We have compiled several comprehensive reviews of fish passage and protection technologies for EPRI that have become standard references for the electric power industry and regulatory and resource agencies.
Alden's largest project to date has been development and testing of a new fish-friendly hydroelectric turbine. This project was sponsored by the Department of Energy and included CFD design of the turbine scroll case and runner, engineering performance tests, and biological testing of multiple size classes of six species. More than 35,000 fish were evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the runner design to pass fish without injury.
