Project description
Hydropower goes small to make a big splash
One of the oldest, simplest and consistent forms of renewable energy is hydropower – watermills have been around since ancient times. Today, it’s the largest source of renewable energy in the world. There is potential to move beyond large-scale dams. A microhydropower system that uses the natural flow of rivers with interconnected small turbines that generate up to 100 kilowatts of electricity each to form an energy solution up to a few megawatts. The EU-funded Turbulent project is developing a cost-efficient microhydropower plant designed to use a very low head stream without impact. It does not require a dam and is smaller, lighter and easier to install and maintain. The aim of the project is to promote microhydropower and expand the technology in the EU and abroad.
Objective
Energy utilities, investors and project developers are actively looking for decentralized solutions that combine sustainability
with stable and risk-free energy production at low cost. Since wind and solar are highly intermittent, hydropower is to take an
important role in the energy mix. An alternative to large dam facilities is small hydropower technologies but they still present
the major challenge of size reduction in order to lower the usable head (water height) to under 3 meters.
All kinds of hydropower techniques have been tried to scale down for local and to lower the usable head to under 3 meters,
without success until now.
TURBULENT provides a reliable, cost efficient, micro hydropower plant uniquely designed to use a very low
head stream (<3m) without impact. Based on a biomimicry, the power plant generates energy close to the end user ranging
from 15kW to 100kW.
• No dams= Fish friendliness = Reduction of civil works >50% .
• Smaller, lighter, easier installation and maintenance.
• Biomimic impeller design = Double energy production with same size
• =Cheaper cost-of-energy €0,026/kWh. (Solar is € 0.06kWh)
Current TRL is 7. 2 Real scale demonstrators and 1 commercial setting succesfully completed & in operation.
MARKET: Global <3m hydropower installation potential of 341GW! This represents a global market opportunity of €1x10^12
(1 Billion €).
Turbulent is unleashing the potential of micro hydropower and expanding the technology in EU & abroad countries through
trained and certified distributors (Viral in social media +100M views = +3.5K requests received).
The SME project will allow to accelerate the market entry and the company team growth (37 employees by 2023). In 2021
the company will reach profitability and the forecast show a cumulative EBITDA in 5 years of €64M.
Funding needs. A first seed round of €1.6M has been signed with commitment to sum another €1.6M in 2020. In this project
we request 2.3M to scale up.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy hydroelectricity
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3012 Wilsele
Belgium
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.