Portland hydropower company to receive $2.25 million federal grant
Courtesy / Ocean Renewable Power Co.
A river turbine from Ocean Renewable Power Co., which is receiving a $2.25 million federal grant, is shown prior to being lowered into the Kvichak River at the remote Alaskan village of Igiugig in August 2014.
Portland-based Ocean Renewable Power Co. has won a $2.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop ways to lower the costs of deploying, retrieving and anchoring its tidal and river power turbines, making them more commercially competitive.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-District 1, announced the funding Tuesday after meeting recently with DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz to tout the Portland company’s work in developing innovative technology to generate sustainable, clean power from tides and rivers.
“As ORPC takes its technology to new markets, this federal investment will help them fine-tune their products so they are better able to compete with other power sources,” Pingree said in a statement.
The grant for ORPC is one of 41 awards totaling $125 million to pursue novel approaches to energy innovation while combating climate change and moving toward a low-carbon economy. DOE identified the grant recipients at a technology incubator event in Washington, D.C., focusing on technological solutions to combat climate change, enhance security and solve pressing energy challenges around the globe.
The DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy office noted that ORPC’s R&D work supported by the grant, if successful, “could reduce the cost of the installation process in which ORPC’s turbine could be placed in the water near shore, self-propel to the deployment location, and hold itself in place on the sea floor through redirected downward thrust.”
ORPC made North American history in September 2012 when its prototype TidGen power system, a 176,000-pound tidal-power generator installed in tidal waters off Eastport, transmitted electricity from Cobscook Bay to a commercial grid for the first time. In the summer of 2014, the company successfully tested its smaller RivGen power system in the Kvichak River at the remote Alaskan village of Igiugig, 275 miles southwest of Anchorage.
In response to global interest in its hydro-kinetic technologies and its expertise in the marine renewable energy field, the company created a wholly owned subsidiary, ORPC Solutions, offering project development, licensing and strategic services to river and ocean energy projects around the world.
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