Funding secured for tidal energy turbine project
TIDAL energy company GKinetic Energy has received funding under the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) programme to carry out further testing and improvements to a new turbine at Limerick Docks.
GKinetic Energy is developing an innovative hydrokinetic turbine device that accelerates the flow of water to produce zero-carbon energy in both river and tidal resources.
The €99,562 allocation from the SEAI Prototype Development Fund is to carry out further optimisation of the device as GKinetic enhances its plans to design, build and demonstrate a large scale 250kW tidal device in conjunction with a consortium of EU project partners.
Last March, DesignPro Ltd. secured Horizon 2020 funding to commercialise small-scale river devices using GKinetic’s technology.
Significant effort went into the device’s Power Take Off (PTO) system and, with support from Marine and renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI) and LiR, the control law has now been defined.
The SEAI funding will see the deployment of an improved prototype device at a purpose-built test facility the company developed in partnership with Shannon Foynes Port Company in the Limerick Docks.
Testing is projected to run for a six-week period.
GKinetic has said it hopes to establish the Limerick Docks as a centre of excellence for testing marine energy technology.
