The EnCurrent Turbine patented by New Energy Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, is making the rounds in North American waters and the system is proving to be a great adaptation in all kinds of high-flow water systems like Calgary city water outflows, steep Alaskan rivers, high-flow tidal currents on the Inside Passage of Vancouver Island, and icy winter waters of Manitoban rivers.
“We put a 5KWh system in the Ruby River in Alaska. Initially they called for 2.5 KWh but our system was able to pull out that much more electricity from the river current,” said Clayton Bear, one of the principals of New Energy Corporation.
“In Manitoba we tested year-round. At present we are looking at two things: further expansion in Alaska and access to the Rural Electrification Program in B.C.,” said Bear, “which is mostly First Nations accessing the program.”
Elsewhere in the country Clayton attended a conference this spring in Moncton looking into the potential for energy in the Maritimes. “The conference was looking at big projects in the Bay of Fundy. Many companies are looking because there is so much power in that water. The tide rises 10 m per second. It’s an incredible amount of energy.”
The conference showed that Bay of Fundy presents many unresolved technical challenges. The generators as yet cannot withstand the beating of that much water. “They are talking about smaller projects in the immediate future using estuaries with high tidal flows off the bay.”
Meanwhile Bear and business partner Robert Moll have EnCurrent Turbines arrayed in five, ten and 25 KWh systems in Canoe Pass, Manitoba, and Alaska on the Yukon River. The next phase for New Energy is to take their tidal project in Canoe Pass (near Quadra Island on the B.C. coast) to the 250 KWh scale with an array of EnCurrent Turbines. The ultimate goal is to extract five to MWh out of the tidal flow around Quadra Island.
At OREG (Ocean Resource Energy Group) Chris Campbell noted the province is organizing a series of regional meetings with First Nations in 2009 and meanwhile the federal government has put some money into an ocean wave energy project with SyncWave in Ahousaht, a semi-remote First Nation community found outside Tofino in the Nuu chah nulth Nation.