Proposed is the development of a hydroelectric energy device (HEED) wherein the inherent increasing dynamic response with increasing flow rate is considered an opportunity for increased energy harvest. In order to establish requisite control over the otherwise potentially divergent dynamic response, design and harvest strategies from three previously disconnected research realms will be imposed, including dynamics phenomena, advanced aircraft development strategies, and classic electromagnetic induction. The proposed program, with Phase I deliverables closely matching the N112-147 announcement, is considered high risk, high payoff, but includes in-river testing in Phase I Option to mitigate lead-time risks. It is argued that the resulting HEED significantly expands siting opportunities as compared to existing classic and modern approaches a quality that is requisite to a versatile portable system. Moreover, the proposed HEED is expected to display enhanced performance in flow regimes that have traditionally corresponded to degradation in energy conversion efficiency. In addition, the proposed HEED concept is inherently modular, and therefore expected to be readily adaptable to portability and assembly requirements.
Benefit: While the term HEED is technically descriptive of the proposed device, the naming convention river energy extraction devices (REEDs) embodies more curb appeal, and will therefore be employed in for-market efforts. The versatile siting of the proposed REEDs is expected to address Navy needs as well as the portable HEED market in general, which 1st PE, Inc. views as an effective market entry strategy. However, 1st PE has a longer term vision of offering for market a cost effective device for harvesting hydrokinetic energy from rivers/streams with flows known to be otherwise unharvested, and moreover, unharvestable by current available technologies. Per a recent DoE report this corresponds to, at a minimum, 10,000 MW of untapped resource in the US; however this market could expand significantly in light of increasing environmental concerns over the ecological damage resulting from turbine-induced flow patterns, which are alien to the aquatic environment. The commercial vision has been vetted by a regional technology start-up assistance, non-profit group (Innovation Works), which is currently prepared to work with 1st PE toward enabling this vision.
Keywords: environmentally sustainable, environmentally sustainable, Power generation, Energy Harvesting, Portable, hydrokinetics
