An Irish renewable energy consortium that has built the world’s strongest tidal blade has teamed up with an Alaskan community to provide 100 per cent of its electricity needs from its local river.
As Times.ie reports today, technologists based at ÉireComposites in Indreabhán, Connemara are working with US-Irish partners Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) to build the second of two river energy systems for the residents of Igiugig in Alaska.
A single river generator system comprising two turbines is already providing some 50 per cent of the village’s electricity needs.
The Igiugig community of about 70 people is located about 200 miles south-west of Anchorage.
ORPC Director of European Operations James Donegan credited the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland for funding the design of the “RivGen” turbines.
The system was installed with support from the US Department of Energy and the European Commission.
“Working with the Igiugig village council was ideal, as this community currently pays about ten times the normal cost of electricity,” Donegan explained.
The system has been so successful that a second is under construction, and this will ensure the village has 100 per cent of its electricity needs, he said.
The “RivGen” turbine system also holds the record for the longest operating current energy converter in the US, according to ÉireComposites chief executive officer Tomás Flanagan.
His staff visited Alaska for the first turbine deployment several years ago, and are now working on the second system for the community.
ÉireComposites has also built the world’s strongest tidal blade, which has been tested in the large structures testing laboratory in the MaREI Centre at NUI Galway.(NUIG)
Prof James Goggins of NUIG said that a static load equivalent to over 100 tonnes or the weight of ten double-decker buses was applied to the tidal turbine blade.
This was the highest load to be reported ever in the world, Goggins explained.
Read more on Times.ie here