US hydrokinetic energy company Waterotor International has unveiled a 20MW wind-marine hybrid system called The Big Cajun that simultaneously extracts energy from slow moving water and wind.
The patented technology utilises rotor stacks in low water speed and conventional wind turbines to extract large amounts of power, said the company.
Big Cajun is currently under development in the US state of Louisiana and is Waterotor’s first commercial ocean deployment.
The technology is being developed with major contractors under the direction of marine architect Herman J Schellstede.
US Capital Global, San Francisco-based investment banking firm, is engaged by Waterotor to raise further funding for the project.
Waterotor said the first application allows oil and gas companies to reduce their carbon footprint and reduce costs.
This will be achieved by replacing diesel-generated electricity production on platforms that each consume 33,000 gallons of fossil fuel per day at an annual cost of over $70m (€63.2m).
Waterotor’s founder & chief executive Fred Ferguson said: “Waterotor’s technology will provide access to a massive, untouched source of renewable energy for the first time.
“No one has successfully commercialized energy production from flat moving water. This is the beginning of a new era.”
“Within the next year, we expect a major global corporation and/or power company to license our technology for ocean-produced electricity.”
Waterotor has identified several potential sites for The Big Cajun, including an initial site located off Suriname and Guyana.
Western boundary currents are among the fastest non-tidal ocean currents on Earth, reaching speeds of more than five miles per hour (2.5 metres per second) and containing as much as 100 times the combined flow of the world’s rivers.