Roisin McCormack

GKinetic Energy Ltd, are an Irish based hydrokinetic energy technology developer. Originally developing its technology for offshore tidal energy generation, GKinetic partnered with the H2020 +CityxChange project in 2021 and redesigned its patented flow acceleration technology for tidal estuary and river, resulting in the 12kW floating twin vertical axis system. During this project they developed and patented their unique turbine system which generates max power at a Tip Speed Ratio of less than one, i.e. while rotating slower than the water which passes through it. This has two major benefits, it greatly reduces the potential for impacts to aquatic life, and it reduces wear and fatigue in parts which leads to less required maintenance and an increased lifespan for components. Building on this achievement and in light of the common globally available river resource which is near people being in water 1/1.5m deep, they adapted this proven design to create a small, modular, 3kW system which can be deployed in a multi-unit array depending on the use case and size of the water course. The benefits of distributed hydrokinetic energy generation is that it is a predictable resource, unburdened by the intermittency issues experienced with other renewable energy sources. In tidal scenarios the regularity of the tides can be relied on. In river systems, rainfall data can be leveraged to forecast production. In natural rivers it follows a generation profile which compliments solar PV in that its generation peaks when PV hits its lowest in the middle of winter. The technology is ideal for distributed energy generation. Either as a stand alone island grid system or part of a distributed generation network where it forms part of a hybrid system providing energy security and grid resilience.