The licence issued this week by FERC means that five turbines will be installed in New York City’s East Riverby Verdant Power by the fourth quarter of 2013, with a total of 30 generators in place by 2015. The turbines will be mounted on the riverbed and capture energy from the tidal flow. The resulting output from the array will be sold to Consolidated Edison Inc. or the New York Power Authority, Verdant Energy reveals.
Verdant Power’s co-founder and president, Trey Taylor, told the Bloomberg news agency that the company will use the ten-year contract to“demonstrate the commercial viability” of the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project.
“Issuing a pilot license for an innovative technology is a major step in the effort to help our country meet our renewable energy goals,” FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff commented. “FERC’s pilot process is doing what it should: allow for exploration of new renewable technologies while protecting the environment.”
FERC developed the pilot license process in 2008 to allow developers to test new hydrokinetic technologies, to determine appropriate sites for these technologies and to confirm the technologies’ environmental effects without compromising FERC’s oversight. Projects eligible for a pilot license must be (1) small; (2) short term; (3) located in an environmentally non-sensitive area; (4) removable and able to be shut down on short notice; (5) removed, with the site restored, before the end of the license term unless the licensee obtains a new license; and (6) initiated by a draft application with appropriate environmental analysis. Verdant Power’s Free Flow Kinetic Hydropower System uses three-bladed, horizontal-axis turbines deployed underwater to generate clean renewable energy from tidal and river currents.
The Free Flow System is installed fully underwater and operates automatically and invisible from shore. The system does not require dams or other major civil works, and does not redirect the natural flow of the water.
Verdant Power tested its Generation (Gen4) Free Flow System through the RITE Project Phase 2 Demonstration, delivering 70 megawatt hours of grid-connected energy from the tides of the East River to New York City customers with no power quality problems.
The Free Flow System has now been advanced to the next generation (Gen5), which is to be installed in the RITE Project proper on the East River, as well as in the CORE Project on the St. Lawrence River (Cornwall, ON).
Research & development
Verdant Power was awarded major funding from the US Department of Energy under its Advanced Water Power Program in 2008. This funding has supported a project to design, manufacture and test an extended turbine rotor that will expand the application potential of the Free Flow System into even deeper water resources. Verdant Power has partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory on this effort, which further advances previous collaborative work between Verdant Power, NREL and SNL on the turbine rotor.
[Inset: Courtesy of Verdant Energy]
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