Canadian 20MW ocean energy hybrid sets sights on ‘big oil’

Waterotor International Corp, a Canada-based hydrokinetic energy company, has unveiled a 20MW hybrid offshore renewable energy system that can simultaneously extract power from slow moving water and wind.

The hybrid ocean energy-generating system, dubbed ‘The Big Cajun’, uses unique rotor stacks in low water speed and conventional wind turbines to extract large amounts of power, Waterotor claims.

Currently under development in Louisiana, The Big Cajun is Waterotor’s first commercial ocean deployment.

The first applications of the system are expected to make it possible for ‘big oil’ to reduce its carbon footprint and drastically lower costs by replacing diesel-generated electricity production on platforms that, according to Waterotor, each consume 33,000 gallons of fossil fuel per day at an annual cost of over $70 million.

Fred Ferguson, Waterotor’s founder & CEO, said: “Waterotor’s technology will provide access to a massive, untouched source of renewable energy for the first time. No one has successfully commercialized energy production from flat moving water.

“Within the next year, we expect a major global corporation and/or power company to license our technology for ocean-produced electricity.

“This is the beginning of a new era.”

Waterotor has identified several potential sites for The Big Cajun, including an initial site located off Suriname and Guyana.

Western boundary currents are among the fastest non-tidal ocean currents on Earth, reaching speeds of more than 2.5 meters per second, and containing as much as 100 times the combined flow of the world’s rivers, Waterotor said in reference to information by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

The company added it engaged U.S. Capital Global (USCG), a San Francisco-based investment banking firm, to raise further funding for the project.