Twenty-year-old tidal energy startup Verdant Power is finally installing its system that delivers clean power from tidal and river currents in a real-world application. The company is a leader in the global marine renewable energy industry but getting a project launched has been a long and arduous journey.
The Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) installation, as the project is called, involves a set of three half-scale underwater generators being installed in the East River tidal strait. The trio of 35-kilowatt turbines sits on a single triangular base called a TriFrame.
The turbines use a Free Flow System that generates clean electricity from the East River’s natural tidal currents. The energy generated will go straight into New York City’s power grid – a region hungry for renewable energy but possessing limited means to generate it locally.
An NYSERDA spokesperson said:
As part of New York’s nation-leading efforts to achieve Governor Cuomo’s goals to obtain 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% from clean sources by 2040, the state is assessing all opportunities.
RITE is the first U.S. licensed tidal power plant. It’s a technology demonstration of the company’s novel TriFrame™ mounting system and fifth-generation tidal power system. Verdant Power will use this pre-commercial project to optimize the system’s installation, maintenance, and economics while assessing its performance over the next two decades.
John T. Banigan, Verdant Power CEO, said:
We are proud to be the first licensed tidal power project in the U.S. Today we are demonstrating clean power from the tidal currents, and that tidal power is a viable energy resource advancing our industry in the U.S. and globally. We also are proud to be a New York-based company that will create an MRE industry cluster with local jobs and global exports.
The design of the system is scalable and adaptable to faster and deeper tidal straits. Once the RITE project proves successful, the next step would be profitable commercial operations and global commercialization.
Verdant Power doesn’t intend to compete with other renewable sources such as wind and solar. Its focus is to provide an additional or alternative means of generating clean power to places like New York City that don’t have enough land space to make wind farms or solar plants.
Trey Taylor, Verdant Power’s co-founder and chief commercial officer, said:
Amazonia has over 2,000 diesel[-powered] villages. The Philippines has over 6,000 islands.
Many places worldwide could benefit from this technology. After all, the planet is over 70% covered in water bodies, most of which contain currents. That’s a lot of possibility for generating clean energy!
