Although Small HydroPower (< 10 MW) represents the largest market opportunity for hydropower industries and the best feasible solution to further increase the penetration of renewable energies, its market penetration is stopped by the too high Levelized Cost of Electricity (within the range 0.10-0.27 USD/kWh, two to five times higher than the cost of large HP plants) and the low conversion efficiency when applied to low water falls (low-head applications < 2 m), although this situation represents about 70% of Small HydroPower potentially exploitable applications.
RIVER-POWER is an innovative mini/micro HP plant able to competitively exploit the hydro-kinetics energy of the water flow and applied in zero-head applications, without any fall and dam required. The turbine can be used to harvest energy from rivers but also from sea and tidal currents with a few modifications. The turbine design is based on the wind vertical-axis technology which can operate also if blades are only partially submerged (during dry periods), in contrast to the horizontal-axis turbines. The approach has already been demonstrated on the field and now the conclusive improvement of the concept has to be performed by means of a design optimization focused on the reduction of the mechanical resistances, thereby improving the conversion efficiency and reducing the fixed and operative costs, paving the way to the launch of the first commercial product in the hydropower market.
In order to reach the market, EOL Power needs to:
• select the power capacity of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP);
• design the MVP and test the final prototype in an operational environment, to reach TRL9;
• industrialize the technology, protecting the intellectual property (IP), creating an optimized supply chain and launching the technology to prospective investors;
• develop and implement the commercialization strategy.
