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Technology Advancement for Hydropower Industry Needs Perspective

Gia Schneider

May 4, 2017

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Motivations Unlock value in enhanced energy, capacity and ancillary services through small hydro hybridization Baseload operation

Hybridization reduces volatility, improves dispatch

Solar

Wind

Hybrid (Hydro

+Battery+ PV)

Deliver climate resilient distributed water solution by pairing watershed restoration with new hydro → Restoration Hydro

Summer cattle grazing land; 1993

Beavers established a persistent colony, 2012

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Total Potential ~2 GW 12 GW 10-100+ GW

Addressable Market

1 GW “Simple” Dams 5 GW

“Complicated” Dams 7 GW

Degraded watersheds 20-50 GW

Pristine watersheds

Typical Project Size

200 kW-10 MW (aggregated)

2 - 20 MW 2 - 50 MW 2 -50 MW

Market Barrier to Address

Installed Cost Installed Cost

Installed Cost Permitting

Installed Cost Permitting

Opportunity Distributed, flexible energy that hybridizes well with other renewables at delivered LCOE <$60 per MWh; and has opportunity to deliver water benefits such as groundwater recharge

Combine watershed restoration and dam upgrades with new renewable energy production

In-Conduit Non-Powered Dam New Stream Near Term Mid Term Long Term

Low Head Distributed Hydro Markets

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Challenges

Installed Cost Conventional hydro is highly site specific with a lot of excavation; costs dominated by civil works

Permitting Conventional hydropower development is slowed by long permitting timeframes due to environmental, water and some social concerns.

Learn from Wind, Solar Go Modular and Standardize

Go Over Tailwater Eliminate site specific work, particularly excavation

Go Distributed and Low Head “Walk down the stairs”

Go Multi-Benefit Design for water and ecosystem benefits using lessons learned from watershed restoration

Solutions

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Advanced Manufacturing • 3D printing for molds for mass produced, standard components (blades, buckets, etc) made

from advanced composites • Carbon fiber for structural components • Flexible penstocks as one path for floating power house • Use high power computing to refine design for manufacturing Modularity, Standardization • Standardize and modularize equipment • Standardize and modularize balance of plant • Minimize site specific engineering Ecological Design • Identify and prioritize environmental criteria to set engineering criteria • Engineer to achieve optimal plant design for deliver a benefit stack that is built on energy, but

delivers ecosystem and water benefits Big Data + Machine Learning • Site Screening • Monitoring • Operations Optimization

Technology Opportunities

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Solutions: Interactive cloud deployed dashboards updated in real / near real time Developer Dashboard identify, screen, design and develop projects to achieve prioritized results (eg: dispatchable hydro, groundwater recharge, runoff management, wetland restoration, etc) Manager Dashboard connect, monitor and manage distributed projects to create an intelligent, networked, responsive system that optimizes the natural resource productivity of water and watersheds for energy, environment and economics

Design Objective: A knowledge and analytics platform for distributed water+energy projects

Software Innovation

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Design Objective: Build a program to automate detection of potential sites and other features using machine learning applied to visual and near-infrared data.

Machine Learning, Neural Nets

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Design Objective: A plant operations platform for any site and any turbine.

Agile Controls

Freedom Dashboard Simulation

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Building low cost storage into distributed hydro

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● Design equipment package to be modular and standardized like wind, make thousands of the same turbine, instead of custom units

● Design for high performance (90% turbine efficiency) in low pressure, high flow settings

● Design for simplified civil works and installation turbine should sit above tailwater ● Design for safe fish passage ● Design for easy debris handling

Innovation: Turbine Design

• Linear powertrain • Blades made from injection molded

composites • Self-cleaning blades • 90% hydraulic efficiency • Jet deflector: instant depower with no

change in flow rate; no water hammer and no overspeed risk

• Powertrain in air • Sits above tailwater

Free jet hydroEngine: Linear Pelton

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Install over tailwater to reduce excavation and concrete 80% reduction in excavation 40% reduction in civil works cost Simplify, standardize and modularize balance of plant civil works to reach $2,000 to $3,000 per kW installed cost ● standardized pre-fab powerhouse modules

achieve faster construction with reduced schedule risk from weather and excavation related delays

Innovation: Balance of Plant Over Tailwater

Other evaluated options

Leading design

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Invert conventional powerhouse design logic: Buoyancy is a feature, not a bug. Minimize civil works complexity at sites with variable tailwater.

Innovation: Floating Powerhouse

Existence proof: spud barges, common in marine construction.

80% reduction in civil works cost useful at 80% of the NPD market

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● NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Coho Salmon Recovery project in the Klamath Basin using Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs)

Restoration Hydro

Before After

Images and data shared with thanks to NOAA NMFS. Michael Pollock NOAA Fisheries-Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

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NOAA Fisheries Project has demonstrated: ● 30X increase in habitat capacity over the starting baseline condition ● Juvenile fish passage across a BDA side channel with 10% slope and <1 cfs

flow ● Increase in the water table over a span of >1 km

Restoration Hydro

Upstream of the BDA, the water table dropped, while near and downstream of the BDA, the water table rose.

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Pilot Idea: Partner with NOAA NMFS, Pacific Northwest National Labs to demonstrate combination of BDAs for salmon recovery with hydro generation. Key objectives are to demonstrate: ● Habitat creation and fish population recovery ● Fish passage upstream and downstream ● Water benefits incl: groundwater recharge, water table improvements, stream temperature reduction ● $3,000 per kW installed: standardized, modular, over tailwater hydro project design

Restoration Hydro Pilot

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Buckeye Pilot Project commissioned

Fatigue testing program hits 100 million cycles

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

First round of tests at

Alden Hydraulic

Lab

Natel’s onsite hydraulic

performance scale model test facility

comes online

Natel closes first

commercial sale to Apple

First commercial

project commissioned

using fully flooded unit

Natel closes second sale in Maine

Second commercial

project commissioned using free jet

unit

Natel Innovation History