A tidal turbine system that has allowed over 100 million salmon to swim through its blades is going across the pond for the first time.
ORPC's TidGen Power System is heading to Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, for a trial after 17 previous deployments in the U.S. and Canada, as Interesting Engineering reported.
"The Queen's Marine Laboratory (QML) Tidal Test Site in Strangford Lough is a unique facility providing developers the opportunity to deploy and monitor their technology in real tidal flows," said Queen's University professor Carwyn Frost in a news release.
ORPC is undergoing the trial in real-world conditions after using Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche's large towing tank in Rome for lab testing.
The company specializes in tidal energy, a clean energy source that avoids the intermittency concerns that come with wind and solar energy. ORPC's system is notable for its design and close monitoring of its impact on marine life, per Interesting Engineering.
That monitoring is achieved through hundreds of hours of video footage that the team analyzed from an installation site in Alaska. They reported the footage showed that over 100 million sockeye salmon smolts and 10 million adult sockeye salmon traversed through their blades without noticeable damage or death.
Those results are notable, as the entire TidGen Power System operates underwater with turbines designed to withstand harsh ocean conditions. A buoyant mooring system cuts down on costs and installation time while reducing the footprint on the seabed.
ORPC's growth in tidal energy follows other exciting news for the fledgling industry, like the U.S. government announcing a $35 million investment in research. Scottish company Orbital Marine Power, meanwhile, is bringing its tech to Washington state. That echoes efforts from students and startups in Cape Cod and New Hampshire.
Similarly, Tidal is gathering momentum in Europe, with the European Union helping fund major projects in France, and London-based startup Spiralis Energy developing its own trials eventually to take on dirty energy competitors.
Asia is also a fertile area for tidal energy, with an English company leading a project in the Philippines and researchers in China trying to optimize "blue energy."
These clean energy projects can help slow the warming of the planet with minimal pollution, and, in ORPC's case, minimal impact on local marine life.
"ORPC are bringing clean, predictable, emission-free tidal and river energy to markets around the globe, and this deployment and research is helping to maximise design efficiency and performance of our power systems," concluded ORPC executive Patrick Cronin.
Next up for ORPC will be testing and monitoring turbine performance in Strangford Lough through all of the area's unique elements. The team will also optimize numerical models of the turbines, and examine the benefits of bringing tidal to Northern Ireland's grid.
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