Irish tidal energy developer GKinetic Energy has completed a new round of testing on its optimized 1:10 scale tidal device at the Limerick Docks testing facility in Ireland.
The device was re-launched in August 2017 to undergo 6 weeks of regulated tow-tests designed to study and gauge data on improvements to the power take-off (PTO) system and blade positioning.
Experts from the Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy (MaREI) and Numerics Warehouse contributed significantly to the recent optimizations, GKinetic said.
“Important new insights and data came from this latest round of testing allowing for the improvements to be evaluated. The results obtained will now be used to contribute towards the scaling up of the turbine and to prepare for open water deployments,” GKinetic said.
The Limerick Docks test facility is run in collaboration with Shannon Foynes Port Company which operates the docks that enclose a 450-mter tow-testing area, providing a ‘stepping-stone’ for device developers between the lab and the open ocean.
To remind, GKinetic unveiled plans earlier this year to scale-up its tidal technology by building a 250kW device.
The testing was funded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) which provided close to €100,000 to GKinetic to support this round of optimization and testing of the device.