Subsea Energy

Subsea Energy

The world’s oceans are vast and complex, providing opportunities and challenges for marine scientists, commercial industry, and government agencies. New technologies and study methods are changing the way the we view and use our oceans, and more data is being collected at sea than ever before. One of the greatest challenges for marine users are the costs and availability of vessels and crews, as well as difficult and dangerous weather and sea state conditions. These factors have led to tremendous growth in the use of unmanned vehicles and sensors to patrol the ocean and collect data with limited or no human interaction.

In 2015, ORPC secured a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy to assess the feasibility of a pitching foil design for ORPC’s turbine generator unit (TGU), enabling an innovative self-propelled deployment and retrieval system for cross-flow hydrokinetic turbines.

In collaboration with project partners, ORPC is pursuing the commercialization of a small-scale autonomous TGU for distributed subsea power supply at rated capacities ranging from 400 W to 20 kW, and providing capabilities in long-distance, high endurance offshore operations such as unmanned vehicle recharging and sensor network support.