Stakeholder Outreach for FishSafe Hydropower (SO-FiSH)

Natel Energy will co-develop a community education experience focused on communicating and soliciting feedback on advancements in turbine design that reduce environmental tradeoffs for hydropower. Experiences will be interactive during the FERC licensing stakeholder process and some will translate into permanently installed educational installments at operating hydropower sites. Project funds will be directly tailored to the Coon Rapids Dam Hydropower project with replicability to other FishSafe and sustainable hydropower projects. Phase 1 will be tailored to identify priority concerns of the community at the nexus of energy, water, and ecosystems. These priorities will be translated into educational kiosks and curriculum in relation to river ecology and hydropower designed for safe downstream fish passage. Our approach to identify these issues is working directly with local organizations including Background Stories, UMN, Three Rivers Park District, and other NGOs working in energy and protection of the river ecosystem. Phase 1 community engagement will include in-person stakeholder meetings to present on the impacts of the project and request written and oral feedback. In collaboration with MN Renewable Energy Society (MRES), a newsletter article will be distributed with requests for comments and a virtual educational presentation to the members and public via MRES quarterly lunch and learn program. Community engagement will be integrated into the design process of educational kiosks. Placement of the kiosks designed by Background Stories and curriculum for on-water and in-classrooms developed by FMR will complete the work in Phase 2. Attendance with the materials from both subcontractors work will be presented at a booth at the MN State Fair Eco Fair arena. A feature of the design process is replicability of the physical items and curriculum to various rivers with non-powered dams (NPDs) throughout the country where hydropower designed for fish safety can be developed. With only 3% of the nationĺs 80,000 NPDs featuring hydro resources there is an opportunity to expand the knowledge to communities about the opportunity to transform existing infrastructure into a source for renewable energy with ecological benefits across the US using the curriculum and digital content developed in this project as the cornerstone.