As part of the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project, 30 turbines are being installed along the strait that connects the Long Island Sound with the Atlantic Ocean in the New York Harbor. The project, led by Verdant Power, Inc., is the first ever commercially licensed tidal energy project in the United States. The turbines are scheduled to be fully installed by 2015 and will use the flow of the East River and tides to generate 1,050 kilowatts of electricity—enough to power 9,500 New York homes.
The turbines will also collect important data about environmental impacts on fish and river sediment and provide jobs to a team of technicians who will maintain and monitor the equipment.
DOE helps advance water power technologies by funding research to determine the size of the water resource and by developing innovative technologies to unleash its energy potential. The department began providing Verdant Power with funding in 2008 to improve the turbines’ blade design. Verdant had been successfully developing and testing turbine prototypes in the East River since 2002, but those turbine rotors were not durable enough to be scaled up for commercialization. With the DOE assistance, Verdant designed and tested new blades, which are stronger and more reliable—allowing them to capture more energy from faster currents at greater depths and at a lower cost. Read the complete story in the DOE Energy Blog.
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