October 26, 2018 DNV GL Issues Statement of Feasibility to ORPC for Second-Generation TidGen® Power System
Portland, Maine, October 26, 2018 – ORPC, Inc., in the business of improving people’s lives and their environment through sustainable energy solutions, announced today that it has received a statement of feasibility issued for technology qualification, based on DNVGL-SE-0163, for its second-generation TidGen® Power System. DNV GL is the world’s largest resource of independent energy experts and certification body.
ORPC’s TidGen® Power System generates emission-free electricity from tidal currents and delivers predictable, reliable power to regional grids and remote microgrids. In 2012 ORPC built and operated its first-generation TidGen® Power System in Cobscook Bay in Eastport and Lubec, Maine. It was the first revenue-generating, grid-connected tidal energy project in North America, and the first ocean energy project to deliver power to a utility grid anywhere in the Americas. ORPC will build and install the first production unit of its new TidGen® System in Cobscook Bay, Maine, in late 2020.
A statement of feasibility is the first critical step in an extensive process of verification that confirms the TidGen® Power System meets the highest international acceptance standards. This third-party documentation is often required by customers, funding institutions, private investors and insurers to confirm the market readiness of new products.
“ORPC looks forward to continuing our work with DNV GL to complete this very important certification process,” said Chris Sauer, Chairman, Co-Founder & CEO. “We appreciate the thoroughness of DNV GL’s methodology and what their certification means to the U.S. Department of Energy and our stockholders and customers.”
Remarked Claudio Bittencourt Ferreira, M.Sc., Business Development Director, DNV GL Renewables Certification–London, “The DNV GL certification process for tidal turbines and arrays aims to provide a robust approach to technology development, taking into account safety and environmental aspects, but also the very important requirements for commercial success. Achieving the Statement of Feasibility under DNVGL-SE-0163 is an important milestone that allows ORPC to identify the necessary steps to demonstrably control the risks to success and further develop the technology.”
ORPC’s technical qualification work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Water Power Technologies Office Award Number DE-EE0007820.
Currently, ORPC is executing power system installation projects in Maine, Alaska and Canada totaling over $16 million USD. The company is actively pursuing exciting new market opportunities that will provide environmentally sustainable energy solutions to remote communities in high cost power markets, notably in northern Quebec, where energy powered by diesel costs more than 12 times that from the Quebec grid.
Underscoring ORPC’s growth spurred by these new opportunities, Melozi Scott has been hired as Ocean Engineer, Kerry Strout Grantham as Development Services Manager and Kim Barden as Administrative Assistant at ORPC headquarters in Portland, Maine. Guillaume Marquaille has also been hired as Project Manager at EMARQ, ORPC’s Canadian subsidiary based in Montreal.
In addition to company headquarters in Portland, Maine, and EMARQ offices in Montreal, ORPC has an operations center in Eastport, Maine, a project office in Anchorage, Alaska, and a wholly-owned subsidiary in Dublin (ORPC Ireland).
Worldwide, ORPC is the only company to have built, operated and delivered power to a utility grid from a hydrokinetic tidal project (in Maine), and to a remote community grid from a hydrokinetic river project (in Alaska). ORPC remains firmly committed to its founding principle of working collaboratively with all stakeholders and local contractors to create economic development opportunities. For more information visit www.orpc.co.
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