Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) has in partnership with the University of Maine (UMaine) Foundation established a fund for students at the UMaine School of Marine Sciences.
The fund, called Herbert C. Scribner Jr. Marine Sciences Educational Fund, was established in the honor of the ORPC’s first director of environmental affairs Herbert Scribner who passed away earlier this year.
It will be made available to deserving students majoring in marine sciences at UMaine to help them pursue field work, professional meetings or conferences, research projects and other activities, ORPC informed.
“If $8,000 is contributed by December 31, a $2,000 matching gift from UMaine’s Foundation will bring the fund’s total to $10,000, at which point monies can begin to be dispersed to students,” ORPC said in a statement.
Scribner’s work at ORPC culminated in securing all state and federal permits to install and operate the first utility-grid connected tidal energy project in the Americas.
The work was supported by partnerships formed with faculty and student researchers at UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences.
“Their combined efforts brought our tidal energy project to fruition; provided documentation indicating that the marine environment around the project was not adversely affected; and through innovative methodologies, technologies and approaches to environmental monitoring and regulatory affairs, continues to set the standard for the ocean and river marine renewable energy industries today,” ORPC said.
To remind, ORPC concluded the full-scale testing of a specialized bearing system and associated driveline components at UMaine as part of the US Department of Energy-funded project that aims to advance ORPC’s TidGen tidal technology.
More recently, ORPC was delivered a new generator , produced by Rolls-Royce Marine, as part of the project. The TidGen Power System is designed to generate emission-free electricity at tidal and deep river sites.