The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), in collaboration with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, launched the Fish Protection Prize in 2019 to inspire innovators to develop more reliable and sustainable water structures to protect fish from traveling into potentially unsafe waters, diversions, and intakes.

In September 2020, three teams were selected as grand prize winners, and now after two years working alongside researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to advance their solutions, these teams are excited to share the progress made toward commercializing their technologies.

The prize-winning teams that received both cash awards and voucher support from PNNL will present during this deep dive are:

• Grand prize: Benjamin Mater of Alden Research Laboratory and Charles Coutant, "Making a Deal with the Devilfish: Biometric-Informed Screening Technology"
• Second place: Nicholas and Kenneth LaBry of Prometheus Innovations, LLC, "Fish Diversion Material & Inspection Improvements"
• Third place: Sterling Watson and Abe Schneider of Natel Energy, "The Center Sender."

These types of solutions are critical to advancing next-generation water power technologies and strengthening existing water infrastructure nationwide. Through the prize funding mechanism, these teams were able to advance their concept closer to commercialization.