Underwater turbines to harness power of St. Lawrence River

April 23, 2008

A Canadian turbine manufacturer is making waves with agovernment sponsored initiative to demonstrate the commercial viability of harnessing the St. Lawrence River's underwater currents to generate efficient and affordable electrical energy.

Burlington, Ont.-based Verdant Power Canada will install its Free Flow water turbines in the river to test out the feasibility of using them on a larger scale. On April 11, the Ontario government announced that it was providing $2.2 million in support of the CORE Project under its Innovation Demonstration Fund, which supports promising bio-based, environmental and alternative energy technologies. The project will turn the river’s strong current into 15 MW of clean energy, enough to power 11,000 average-sized homes.

“Here’s a great example of how innovative solutions to long-term challenges like securing a renewable energy supply are being developed right here in Ontario,” says John Wilkinson, Minister of Research and Innovation. “With this project we are demonstrating a clean, viable alternative source of energy—one that not only works in Ontario, but one we can export around the world.”

The Free Flow Turbine system is a three-blade horizontal-axis turbine designed to capture energy from the natural flows of tidal or river currents. They’re installed and operate fully under water, invisible from the shore, are scalable to various sizes depending on site characteristics, and can be grouped into small or large clusters to produce village or utility-scale power. Rotating at a slow rate, they allow for safe fish passage and cause minimal environmental impact. As well, unlike wind turbines, flow hydro turbines are not visible and they deliver power more predictably.

Careful consideration went into the location of the project. Debris, such as logs and sea life, can damage the turbines, but Verdant believes its downstream location from the Moses-Saunders power dam near Cornwall, Ont., will help the blades from being damaged my water hazards.

Verdant previously deployed its Free Flow turbines at the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) Project, which is being operated in New York City’s East River. There, Verdant has installed its five-metre, 35-kW models. The first six-turbine array is already working, and when completed (100 to 300 turbines), the project should generate 10 MW of power, enough for 8,000 homes.

Ontario’s current CORE product will be conducted as a two-phase project over four years, with initial operations having begun in Fall 2007.

“Water is a proven resource for generating power,” says Verdant Power co-founder and president Trey Taylor. “But we are going to demonstrate a game-changing power source—simply by using underwater currents without dams.”