It's not every day that the Pope has any impact on the marine renewables industry. But he did yesterday, as the security arrangements for his talk to the United Nations in New York made it logistically difficult for the delegates at the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference to get from the conference hotel (Broadway and 44th St) to Roosevelt Island (aerial tram from 59th Street and 2nd Avenue).
So Verdant brought a virtual tour of the facility to the hotel, and very impressive it was too.
For me, the key points were
- Verdant has generated nearly 50 MWh over 7,000 turbine-hours
- The technology is on version 5 - this isn't an easy or quick process
- The units are currently rated at 35 kW, and achieve a capacity factor in a tidal setting of c. 30%, but maybe 70%in run-of-river
- Verdant was extremely coy about costings
- Verdant has spent "as much" on environmental studies (lots of money on fish monitoring) as on the technology
I'm very impressed with the step-wise Verdant approach (reminiscent of the Pelamis staged development approach) and by the progress achieved.
