Hydrokinetic turbine developer GKinetic Energy has been supported by the Marinet2 funding to conduct second round of testing of its hydrokinetic technology at Ifremer.
This is the third time GKinetic has utilized the Ifremer test facility located in Boulogne Sur Mer in France to test and optimise its technology.
The company has been approved to receive support from Marinet2 in their fifth and final call to provide access to developers for testing marine energy devices.
In collaboration with Stephen Nash from NUI Galway, GKinetic has designed an improved 1:20 scale model of a submerged 250kW device, financed in part by the SEAI Research & Development & Demonstration fund approved in 2019.
The build of this optimised machine is currently underway at the new GKinetic lab based in Limerick, Ireland, and with the Marinet2 support, it will be tested at Ifremer for full five days in the summer of 2021.
In September 2019, GKinetic successfully tested a submerged device for the very first time at Ifremer with the support of a previous Marinet2 call and Marine Energy Alliance.
The week was extremely positive and the turbine was proven to be fully operational, according to GKinetic.
The next round of testing and analysis will focus on power outputs and blade design to continue to advance the technology at this scale.
GKinetic said is continuing to progress the larger submerged utility scale turbine in conjunction with the commercial rollout of the smaller devices suitable for remote supply, smart cities and canals with a number of demonstrations planned for 2021 and 2022.