Verdant to rework its tidal power turbines in NYC
Eight months after the alternative energy start-up company, Verdant Power, installed the first two of an eventual six tidal power turbines in New York City’s East River, all six have been taken offline for repairs and redesign. Named the RITE Project by Verdant, the East River project was initiated in 2002, and hit a major milestone with the installation of the pilot test turbines last December.
But according to the New York Times, the East River’s powerful tides have been overly stressing and damaging the giant turbine blades. Shortly after installation of the first two turbines, the strong river currents actually snapped several of the turbine blades. The broken blades were replaced newer blades having a more robust, cast-aluminum design, and an additional four turbines with the newer blade design were subsequently installed. But even the new blades proved inadequate for the forces generated by the tides and currents. When all six units–five of which generated power, while the sixth was instrumented to measure current speed–were operating, they together produced about 1,000 kilowatt hours per day. That energy was used to power a nearby Gristedes supermarket and parking garage–which are still operating normally, as they are still connected to the tradtional power grid.
According to the Times,
“…the good thing is that there’s more power in the East River than we thought,” said Mollie E. Gardner, a geologist for Verdant Power, which owns the equipment.
This is the reality of new energy projects, which often seem more attractive on paper than they do in practice. Verdant’s principals, along with the state officials who have supported the project with large grants, say the setback is only temporary, even expected — a way to work out the kinks before moving onto the next, expanded phase.
“The only way for us to learn is to get the turbines into the water and start breaking them,” said Trey Taylor, the habitually optimistic founder of Verdant Power.
Mr. Taylor said that despite the difficulties, the East River project has generated about 7,100 kilowatt hours of electricity, which he said was a world record for hydrokinetic power. The turbines operated, on average, about 17 hours a day until they were shut down this summer.
Once the project is fully developed–Verdant plans to install as many as 300 turbines in the East River–it could generate enough electricity to power more than 8,000 homes and compete head-to-head with traditional sources, Mr. Taylor said.
But a few obstacles still stand in the way. Mr. Taylor said the company has had to spend more than $2 million to study the impact that the turbines might have on fish in the East River. The water is monitored 24 hours a day with sonar equipment to see whether fish are harmed by the blades, which move at a comparatively languid 32 revolutions per minute.
The company has found that the few fish who are picked up by the sonar tend to swim around the blades.
“So far, there haven’t been any strikes,” said Ms. Gardner, the geologist who works for Verdant.
Still, federal regulators want Verdant to conduct studies on species like sturgeon and some turtles that are rarely seen in the East River. –NYTimes, 8/13/2007
Oceana Energy, which has secured a federal permit to develop a pilot tidal power project on the Piscataqua River separating New Hampshire and Maine, was also recently granted a permit to install turbines in the East River, north of Roosevelt Island, not far from the Verdant test site. Verdant Power, like others in the field, has speculated the Oceana is simply squatting the permit sites until they become more valuable, and could then be sold at profit to competitors. Verdant went so far as to log an official protest of Oceana’s permit application. Verdant eventually withdrew the protest, deciding instead to focus its resources on further development of its own technology. For its part, Oceana, also a start-up company, claims to be developing its own turbine technology.
Posted: Monday, Aug 13, 2007 12:15 pm by adam
File as: Energy; NH and Seacoast Area; Wind, Solar and Hydro
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Time: Monday, Feb 25, 2008, 12:31 pm
[…] New York’s East River is the location of one of the more high profile tidal power experiments currently underway, with Verdant Power experimenting with underwater turbines there. The first attempt eventually ended in failure, with the strong tides breaking the devices. […]
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is the location of one of the more high profile tidal power experiments currently underway, with Verdant Power experimenting with underwater turbines there. The first attempt eventually ended in failure, with the strong tidesbreaking the devices. The Gulf Stream has also caught the eye of hopeful ocean energy companies, particularly in Florida, with the 30 mile wide current pushing 8.5 billion gallons of water along per second and prompting some observers to consider the prospect of “
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Comment from joe colao
Time: Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008, 1:15 pm
Nuclear energy is the most expensive when you do the real math as opposed to “fuzzy math”. Should you take into consideration that the entire workforce is trained at taxpayers expense (US Navy trained) along with security costs, throw in profit (as opposed to solar, you pay once and then enjoy the power for decades without the profiteers) add in some bucks for Yucca Mountain, consider transportation of dangerous stuff through our nation, costs of mining and developing uranium, perhaps some thought about thermo pollution etc. to our waterways, consider the real estate costs to locate plants and the lower values of real estate nearby - you then have one big minus. Go Solar etc. joe
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In 1990 there were 500 million people living in poverty in East Asia and the Pacific region. That number is now under 200 million, and the World Bank projects that by 2011 it will be under 20 million a reduction of 95 percent.Power Generated Under New York’s East River
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Time: Friday, Jun 6, 2008, 10:09 pm
In 1990 there were 500 million people living in poverty in East Asia and the Pacific region. That number is now under 200 million, and the World Bank projects that by 2011 it will be under 20 million a reduction of 95 percent.Power Generated Under New York’s East River
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Time: Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008, 12:02 am
de Engelharia Mecânica da Universidade de Aveiro estuda o aproveitamento das marés da Barra de Aveiro através de um modelo computacional de mecânica dos fluidos. Para tal será instalado um parque de turbinas de maré, privilegiando-se aturbina Vardant, a mais adequada para este espaço. O município da Guarda disponibilizou 3 pontos de recepção de óleos alimentares usados para reciclagem e produção de biodiesel. O projecto, agora na fase de arranque, não tem custos para a autarquia, que ainda
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