Test Sites
Regardless of how much time is spent on the design and development of a technology or process in a lab, nothing compares to having the opportunity to test a concept in a real world environment. Test sites have been instrumental to our development, and will continue to be in the future.
Sicamous, British Columbia
Sicamous has been used for short term and transient testing for the past 15 years. It is an ideal location for year round testing since Shuswap Lake does not freeze and there are abundant local facilities and infrastructure for anything from boat repair to tug towing. Tug towing is an excellent methodology for testing new equipment as it gives you the opportunity to test the equipment at various speeds, with the ability to stop whenever necessary.
Initial development was conducted using a purpose built self-propelled pontoon boat with a mounting hole in the centre and an A-frame hoist. The initial testing program was modest in that the first order of business was to generate power. This was proven by powering some basic light bulbs. Once this was established, optimization of the rotor began, and development of control strategies. This work was sufficient to begin developing the first demonstration units. The test barge was later transferred to the Pointe du Bois test site.
CHTTC
The first deployment at the Canadian Hydrokinetic Turbine Test Center (CHTTC) near Lac Du Bonnet, Manitoba took place in September 2013. The turbine deployed was a first generation 5 kW system. Testing was to take place as late as possible into the fall. Unfortunately, before the system could be removed, a sudden and severe cold snap hit in late November resulting in rapid excessive ice buildup in front of the boat pulling the front of the boat under the water.
One of the first prototype 5 kW Direct Drive turbines was deployed at the CHTTC in September of 2014. This system ran until winter with a load of about 1 kW. The primary purpose of this installation was to gather run-time on the new submerged bearing to monitor its wear characteristics and to generally monitor how the system responds to extended periods of operation. Additionally, this site provided an opportunity to test the ability to deploy a system from a single shore of a river; this was completed successfully.
The 5kW stand-alone power conditioning system was also tested onboard the boat since we were unable to deploy the power cable in 2014. The power cable to shore was installed during the spring of 2015 deployment trip so that the turbine was grid-tied for the duration of the summer.
Concepts of micro turbine arrays have also been explored. The imagine on the right features a 5 kW system running behind a 25 kW system.
Point Du Bois
The test site upstream of a Manitoba Hydro Pointe du Bois hydro dam in Pointe du Bois, MB proved to be invaluable to the development of the EnCurrent product line. The first EnCurrent 5kW and 25kW systems were deployed here on a semi-permanent basis. Key learnings were acquired regarding drivetrain and rotor design, flow characterization, floating platform design, power electronics, winter operation and system deployment and retrieval in rivers. The state of the art EnCurrent line of power generation systems owed much of its design to the testing undertaken in this project.
Inadequacies in the rotor and drivetrain were identified and subsequently remedied. Rigid couplings that exhibited fretting corrosion were replaced with a torque arm design and unique alignment design between the gearbox and the generator. Remaining regions that are at risk of fretting are coated with anti-fretting compound. Flat, steel rotor support arms were replaced with hydrofoil cross-section arms, increasing system efficiency dramatically. Rotor robustness was improved with an altered bolted connection design. With regards to the floating platforms, buoyancy, resonance and icing issues were observed and considered during the design of New Energy’s currently offered platforms.
Ice build-up proved to be a major challenge involved in winter operation in Manitoba. Aluminum, with its high thermal conductivity, promotes rapid freezing on its wetted surfaces. Routine removal of the ice was shown to be an inadequate means of ice mitigation, as the build-up occurred far quicker than it could be chipped off. Heat trace was also investigated and tested, but the needed thermal power generation to prevent build-up in temperatures around -40 C was prohibitively high. Ice accumulation at the bow altered the buoyancy balance of the platform. Ice on the rotor was also observed, and although its effect was not measured, it would inevitably have an impact on system efficiency. To date, New Energy has not undertaken any other projects in such severe winter conditions, but the expertise gained in Pointe du Bois will be a major asset in any project involving winter conditions.
The installation was a milestone for the hydrokinetic power generation industry. It was the second grid connected system in Canada, following the connection of Barry Davis’ system in 1988.
Research & Development Partnerships
The University of Calgary
New Energy has entered into a partnership with the University of Calgary through the NSERC Alliance and Alberta Innovates CASBE programs. The goal of this partnership is to analyze and optimize the design of New Energy’s vertical axis hydrokinetic turbines through the use of high fidelity simulations. We are excited to be working with Dr. Artem Korobenko and his team (CFSM Group) on rotor optimization, multi-turbine interaction and much more.