Energy Harvesting Turbines Successfully Tested
Seaformatics deploys four Power Harvesting units for lifecycle tesingt and evaluation
Seaformatics Systems, Inc. of St. John’s, Newfoundland, reports that it has completed an 18-month test and evaluation of four full-scale Power Harvesting Bottom Mount (PHBM) systems.
The test and evaluation program was cosponsored by Husky Energy and was performed to learn more about the systems’ long-term durability and performance for possible application in future offshore operations.
The testing commenced in June of 2014 and was completed in January of 2016, with all of the units deployed in approximately 20m of water in Placentia Bay off the Newfoundland coast.
During the testing period, the PHBMs realized an average current speed of 0.08 m/s and supplied continuous power to Sontek Argonaut XR ADCPs. Two of the units were exposed to higher short term peak currents of 0.4 m/s and harvested over 1kWhr, effectively doubling the life of the ADCP’s batteries over the evaluation period.