Can robotic ‘sensor fish’ save salmon from hydroelectric dams?
Category: article
Jan 15th, 2019 by Keith Worrall 355
Modified Jan 15th, 2019 at 1:23 PM
Some 71 percent of the world’s renewable energy comes from hydropower and more dams are being built all of the time. But while energy wrung from rivers doesn’t release greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming in the way coal and gas plants do, there are still environmental costs.
And in the Northwest, the main concern is the harm caused to salmon traveling up river to spawn and downriver as juveniles returning to the ocean. The dams injure and kill fish in a variety of ways as they navigate fish ladders and bypasses, plunge through turbines and swim through unnaturally warm reservoirs.