Why I invested in Natel Energy
For starters, Natel Energy has the potential to reduce 1 GT of annual CO2e emissions by 2050 by global deployment of their distributed hydro systems.
Globally hydropower is the largest source of renewable power. However, this is one area of renewables that has seen little innovation and deployment in the US in the past two decades despite its huge potential and low operating costs. Due to its high reliability as dispatchable energy, pumped storage hydro power is now recognized as a key to integrating more wind and solar on the grid which are intermittent resources. Only a small percentage of the dams in the United States produce electricity. Most dams were constructed for irrigation and flood control and do not have hydroelectricity generators. The U.S. Department of Energy estimated earlier non-powered dams in the United States had a total of 12 GW of potential hydropower capacity.
Natel’s Upstream Tech suite of digital services for watershed intelligence provide for timely freshwater resource and environmental decision making powered by satellite data and AI. The Upstream Tech software solution at Natel allows for smarter operation and planning with accurate water discharge and quality forecasts anywhere on earth, and Natel has several partners and prospects in utilities, engineering firms, US National Research Labs, EPRI, US Army Corps of Engineers, large corporations, and land and water resource organizations.
Also, their Restoration Hydro Turbine (RHT) has been demonstrated in third party testing to be fish and eel safe. Recently, Natel launched a new California HydroForecast Outlook through a collaboration with WestWater Research and NASDAQ. The combined size of the watersheds they now forecast for is larger than Germany :) This team has made great progress in the last couple of years
