Verdant Power has successfully integrated its three, fifth generation (Gen5), tidal power turbines onto its TriFrame mount in preparation for on-water delivery and deployment at the RITE Project site in New York City’s East River.
Verdant earlier shipped the turbines by barge from its New Jersey marine engineering support services facility to a nearby marine vessel installation services area.
In addition, the RITE Project Control Room on Roosevelt Island is being readied for the turbine system installation, set for autumn 2020.
A New York-based Verdant plans to install three Free Flow System turbines on a single TriFrame mount in the East River.
This will be the pre-commercial phase of the RITE Project to design its tidal turbine, optimize the economics of installation and maintenance of arrays, and prove performance.
Verdant Power CEO John T. Banigan, stated:
“This is the final pre-commercialization phase in a process that has seen 23 government agencies approve work on the RITE Project.
“We are proud to have been the first licensed tidal power project in the U.S.”
“Our focus is on maximizing system power performance, increasing availability and reliability, and reducing project capex and operating costs,” added Banigan.
“The RITE Project not only will demonstrate clean power from the tidal currents, but also will demonstrate tidal power as a viable energy resource advancing our industry in the U.S. and globally.”
The RITE Project site will generate electricity under a hydrokinetic pilot project license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – the first commercial license to have been issued for a tidal power project in the United States.
Verdant RITE Project has been supported by NYSERDA (the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office, in addition to New York-based private equity capital support.
During the project, the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) will conduct a third-party assessment of the system’s power performance.