Photo / Courtesy of ORPC
Stuart Davies, CEO of ORPC, says its river- and tidal-driven power generation systems have received market outreach from 70 countries.
February 20, 2025
Energy
Portland company replaces diesel with hydro-kinetic energy to power remote communities
Photo / Courtesy of ORPC
A RivGen device is seen on the banks of the river in Alaska.
A Portland-based company whose technology generates power from water movement has had success with a system in remote Alaska and is now getting interest from around the globe.
The RivGen Power System developed by ORPC can help rural areas cut dependence on diesel generators and other fossil fuel power systems, while harnessing tides and river currents.
Its Alaska project is considered a demonstration of how ORPC can use RivGen technology to extract energy from the river flow, lessening diesel dependence, and lowering carbon emissions, noise and environmental risk.
“We’ve had outreach from over 70 countries,” says Stuart Davies, ORPC’s CEO. “We’re in discussions about projects in Brazil and Columbia. We’re talking with people in Peru. We had calls yesterday about a couple of projects, including an opportunity in Nigeria.”
Untapped resource
ORPC is a newer form of a hydropower company. Instead of dams or altered waterways, ORPC occupies a segment called “marine hydrokinetic energy” and uses small, underwater turbines to generate power from free-flowing rivers and tides. The technology is considered promising for reaching remote communities that otherwise depend on diesel.
According to the National Hydropower Association’s Marine Energy Council, marine energy is a “significant untapped” resource for harnessing clean, renewable power.
“Marine energy technologies are undergoing rapid innovation in the U.S.,” the association says. “These technologies will be critical in helping to reach 100% clean energy targets and related climate change goals by 2035.”
Harnessing water movement
Founded in 2004 by Paul Wells, John Cooper and Christopher Sauer, ORPC builds on an idea from Wells, a cruise ship operations professional who wondered if there was a way to generate electricity from the Florida current.
With Cooper and Sauer, whose careers largely focused on cogeneration and independent power projects, the partners embarked on developing marine renewable energy technology.
In 2007, ORPC opened offices in Eastport and Portland and launched a prototype turbine generator unit off Eastport. Early financing included grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and other entities, seed loans from the Maine Technology Institute and angel funding. The project became North America’s first grid‐connected tidal energy project in 2012.
More private investment and public sector research and development funding ensued, with more hires and technology advancement.
In 2019, ORPC unveiled its commercial RivGen Power System at Brunswick Landing and launched it in the Kvichak River, in remote Igiugig, Alaska.
Driving growth
Davies joined ORPC in 2020 to drive growth through overseeing the commercial rollout of the company’s technology in the U.S., Canada and Chile.
Before ORPC, he was an investor in early-stage companies with a focus on products and services that reduce carbon emissions or improve the health of the environment.
“Our focus since 2020 has been toward commercialization,” says Davies. “We’ve raised our profile and built a pipeline of prospective customers worldwide.”
The work attracted the attention of remote communities and investors, he says.
File Photo / Fred Field
In this photo from 2023, mechanical engineer Benjamin Winn is with a large testing tank at the ORPC facility at TechPlace in Brunswick.
Advancements included a $25 million capital raise in 2021, financing installations of devices in targeted markets; boosting sales and marketing capability, supply chain and engineering expertise, and front office services; and leveraging grant funding.
Development sites and field offices have opened in Millinocket, Alaska, Canada, Chile and Ireland. An engineering and electronics lab at Brunswick Landing’s TechPlace includes a test tank and facilities for design advancements.
ORPC in Maine has grown from fewer than 20 employees five years ago to 35 employees today.
In the pipeline
Seeking to reduce dependence on diesel or natural gas generation, four Indigenous communities in Canada recently selected ORPC as their technology partner in response to a call for proposals for renewable energy demonstrations by Natural Resources Canada’s Energy Innovation Program.
The company won an initial award and is competing for further U.S. Department of Energy grant funding to harness tidal energy in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.
Partnering with the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, ORPC evaluated the feasibility of hydrokinetic power systems to decrease diesel dependency in 60 micro-grid communities across Alaska, nearly all accessible only by plane or seasonal vessel. Ten communities were identified for fieldwork this year.
ORPC deployed a tidal generator system at Queen’s University test center in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In 2023, ORPC established a demonstration site for a modular version of its RivGen system, at the One North industrial site in Millinocket. Designed for lower-velocity rivers, the compact modular units can be deployed in multi-unit arrays.
From Millinocket, ORPC shipped another RivGen system to Chile Chico, in Chile’s Patagonia region; permitting for deployment is underway.
Shell’s Marine Renewable Program contracted to buy two Modular RivGen devices, to be deployed later this year as a technology demonstration at an industrial site on the Lower Mississippi River.
Turbines on pontoons
The RivGen — about 50 feet by 50 feet, with a dry weight of 32.5 tons — has a towable pontoon support structure with a self-deploying/self-retrieving remotely
activated buoyancy system, a low-profile turbine, an encapsulated generator
designed for leak prevention and long life in underwater operations, a drivetrain and a control system for operating in turbulent conditions.
The device is shipped as components and assembled on-site. It’s designed to be deployed by locally available vessels, equipment and contractors.
“Once on station, the pontoons fill with water and it goes to the bottom of the river,” says Davies. “We release the brake and it starts to run. You can bring the device back to surface in about 45 minutes by filling the pontoons with air.”
Over half of the components are manufactured in the U.S., including as many as 35 suppliers in Maine. Maine companies provide assembly and testing services.
ORPC expects to become profitable in 2026 through sales and leasing of its devices.
Making connections
ORPC’s marketing includes networking at gatherings such as the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference and the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s Reservation Economic Summit, both well-attended by representatives of rural and remote communities, he notes.
“There’s usually a connection with community leaders of that community and we get to learn more about what their energy needs are,” he says. “Many communities are looking to grow their electricity generation, but they’re limited by their diesel infrastructure. We can help them with that growth.”
Challenges
The commercial deployment of wave, tidal and in-river devices is evolving and being demonstrated at more sites around the world each year, says Renewable Energy Alaska Project, an Anchorage nonprofit.
Still, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notes that careful site selection “is critical to minimizing the environmental impacts of hydrokinetic power systems” due to “a limited understanding of the environmental impacts of in-stream, tidal, ocean current or wave hydrokinetic energy production because few of these projects are operational.”
Davies says ORPC has addressed environmental concerns through its adaptive management program.
“Working with local, state and federal officials, ORPC develops ongoing monitoring plans for its project locations,” he says. “Every spring, ORPC works with the community of Igiugig as well as university and national lab researchers to monitor the annual migration of adult and smolt sockeye salmon using the latest research technology.”
Over one hundred million sockeye salmon smolts and over 10 million adults have passed by ORPC’s devices with no observed injuries or mortalities, he says.
“There is no evidence of fish injury or mortality based on hundreds of hours of video monitoring as well as visual and acoustic observations,” he adds.
ORPC’s capabilities include collecting, monitoring and evaluating environmental data for site selection. Suitable sites have high current speeds, adequate water depth and sea or riverbed conditions, proximity to a grid connection, and interest on the part of the local community.
“Most importantly, marine energy devices must be deployed in such a way that they can coexist with marine life and human activities,” the company says.
That was important for the Igiugig community. The population engages in a subsistence lifestyle and relies on salmon as a food source. The water system is renowned for its sportfishing. Clean energy and sustainability align with the community’s cultural values.
“We knew we’d want to draw power from the river. But we absolutely could not impact our fish because that’s our first and foremost mode of survival,” AlexAnna Salmon, the village’s tribal president, says in a video provided by ORPC.
Salmon says ORPC had the right attitude.
“Their attitude coming in here was very much, ‘This is your home and we’re going to respect it,’” she says. “They worked with our engineers, barge captains and energy experts. I attribute that to the success of the project.”
‘Hydropower 2.0’
Hydropower and the kinetic movement of flowing water were identified by the new administration as a focus for continued development, alongside fossil fuels, biofuels and nuclear energy. “I view our company as ‘hydropower 2.0,’” says Davies.
He continues, “For communities with river and tidal resources, we believe we can provide a low-cost hydropower solution for their energy needs. Diesel fuel is expensive to transport and highly pollutive, and for many communities solar and wind projects are just not economic either due to the unpredictability of these resources or the expense of the large-sized battery that these projects require. The likely termination of many subsidy programs will make even fewer of these projects economic.”
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