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Vortex Hydro

Vortex Hydro Energy is a start up in the process of taking a lab-proven concept into onsite testing and product development. Its Vivace product is the result of 25 years research and development; an example to businesses of beyond the horizon thinking, and in this case, below it as well.

Clean and renewable energy

By maximizing and exploiting Vortex Induced Vibrations (VIV) rather than preventing them, Vivace takes a problem that damages offshore structures and transforms it into a valuable energy resource. Vivace uses groups of cylinders in frames on the ocean floor or river bed. The cylinders create vortexes as the water flows around them which in turn causes them to move up and down. The movement drives generators that are connected via cables to the grid and storage devices on land. Vivace’s inventor, Dr Michael Bernitsas, has worked on the suppression and disruption of VIV for 20 years. In 2004, he saw that instead of suppressing the vibrations, they could be harnessed from the currents to create energy.

“Instead of suppressing those vibrations, maybe we could enhance them, control them, and harness the energy from currents.”

Dr. Michael M. Bernitsas
CTO/ Interim CEO
Vortex Hydro Energy

Vivace is a scalable, flexible and modular system that works in slow flow water. Wave and tidal turbines require an average of five or six knots to operate efficiently, Vivace can operate at currents of less than two knots. Vivace moves from the Lab to a pilot in the Detroit River in 2010. 21 long thin cylinders suspended mid-river in frames will create a constant three kilowatts of energy. Current calculations suggest that, fully commercialized, Vivace will produce energy at 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour, that’s cheaper than nuclear and wind. Eventually, an array of 1,000 cylinders on the ocean floor could produce the same energy as a large nuclear plant. But it’s a long game from inspiration to alternative energy generation.

 

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