Energy Harvesting Turbine Tested Successfully

Seaformatics Systems, Inc. of St. John’s, Canada, has completed an 18-month test and evaluation of four full-scale Power Harvesting Bottom Mount (PHBM) systems. The test and evaluation programme was co-sponsored by Husky Energy to learn more about the systems’ long-term durability and performance for possible application in future offshore operations.

The testing commenced in June of 2014 and was completed in January of 2016. All of the units were deployed in Placentia Bay, off the Newfoundland coast, in ~20m of water. During the testing period, the PHBMs realised an average current speed of 0.08 m/s and supplied continuous power to Sontek Argonaut XR ADCPs. Two of the units were exposed to higher short term peak currents of 0.4 m/s and harvested over 1kWhr, effectively doubling the life of the ADCP’s batteries over the evaluation period.

Seaformatics Systems is a commercial start-up, launched from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Since 2007, the Seaformatics group has specialised in the design, development and manufacture of ocean energy harvesting products. The company has recently launched a new, scaled down system, called the Mooring Power Generator (MPG), a power harvesting device that can be connected to any mooring and used to continuously trickle charge multiple sensors simultaneously by harvesting power from the surrounding ocean.