Ocean Renewable Power Company has won a $5.3m grant from the US Department of Energy to finalise the commercial design of its TidGen 2.0 power system.
This project is the next step in the eventual deployment of the company’s proposed 5MW Maine Tidal Energy Project.
The new design will be tested, operated and monitored in the Western Passage, an inlet off the Bay of Fundy, off the coast of Maine.
ORPC is one of 10 organizations selected to receive more than $20m in US DOE funding for new research, development, and demonstration projects that advance and monitor marine and hydrokinetic energy.
Other recipients included Dresser-Rand, which will integrate a 1MW air-turbine power system into its OceanEnergy oscillating water column wave device, thus doubling the power output of the previous design.
The performance of the device will be demonstrated and validated during a year-long deployment off the coast of Oregon.
Seattle’s Oscilla Power also received funding to integrate cost-reducing technology into its Triton wave device. The device will be tested at the US Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site in Hawaii.
Image: TidGen 2.0 (ORPC)
