Vortex Hydro Energy (United States)

In a global warming and climate change context, populations all over the world are impacted by an increasing number of hydrological crisis (flood events, droughts, ...), mainly related to the lack of knowledge and monitoring of the surrounding water bodies. In Europe, flood risk accounts for 46% of the extreme hazards recorded over the last 5 years and current events confirm these figures. Although the main rivers are properly monitored, a wide set of small rivers contributing to flood events are not monitored at all. There is a clear lack of river basins monitoring regarding the rapid increase of extreme events. Moreover, hydrological surveys are currently insured by heterogeneous means from a country to another and even inside a country, from a region to another. It results in a high-cost level to deploy a robust, relevant, and efficient monitoring of all watercourses at risks. Therefore, there is a real need for affordable, flexible, and innovative solutions for measuring and monitoring hydrological areas to address climate change and flood risk within the water big cycle.  VorteX.io aims to provide an innovative and intelligent service for monitoring hydrological surfaces, using easy-to-install and fixed in-situ instruments, based on compact light-weight device inspired from satellite technology: the micro-stations. From a technical point of view, vorteX-io micro stations are designed like remote sensing nanosatellites that do not fly, but are installed above watercourses (i.e., under a bridge). Onboard remote sensing instruments (lidar, thermal and multispectral camera, GNSS) allow them to remotely and in real-time measure water temperature, provide contextual images and hydro-meteorological parameters (water surface height, water surface velocity, rain rates). Water parameters are transferred in real-time through GSM or SpaceIOT networks.  The technology has been entirely designed and patented by vorteX-io.The combination of these in-situ data with satellite measurements is thus optimal for downstream services related to water resources management and assessment of flood/drought risks: calibration, validation and accuracy assessment of EO projects in space hydrology. The vorteX-io technology is selected by ESA for Sentinel-3 Altimetry CalVal for inland waters: installation of stations under the track and synchronization of in-situ acquisition with the passage of the satellite to operationally provide Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRMs). In addition, vorteX-io is involved in the definition of future inland water FRMs for the upcoming CRISTAL mission and also on the ESA DTE for hydrology. In June 2023, the European Innovation Council awarded the company to deploy 1000 micro-stations in France and CroatiaIn June 2024, vorteX-io has completed a funding round, which notably includes Caisse des Dépôts (CdC represent a major public financial institution in France) and CNES as shareholders. This funding will specifically facilitate the continued deployment of the constellation across Europe.The long-term vision is to cover river basins in Europe with an in-situ network, to be used at large scale as earth-observation in situ component either for monitoring water quality parameters or for extreme hazards monitoring such as floods and drought

Renewable energy production needs serious attention in highly traditional, inefficient, and energy-dependent countries like Nepal. Moreover, the option of an effective renewable energy technology that is economically feasible and environmentally acceptable is a topic of interest due to the availability of various types of renewable energy sources in Nepal. Among other renewable energy sources like micro hydro, solar, biogas etc, very few studies had been conducted on wind energy sources in Nepal and those few studies also focuses mostly on large scale wind farming. So, this study analyzes the suitability of distributed wind energy production in Tila village of Jumla district in the western part of Nepal. Five-year (2015-2019) wind speed data were examined to obtain wind power density and energy density. Two-parameter Weibull probability density function was used to evaluate these two quantities. The annual Weibull parameters k and c of 1.73 and 4.21 m/s were obtained to calculate 43.79 W/m2 power density and 378.37 kWh/m2 energy density. This study also provides the economic evaluation of a 100 kW distributed wind energy system, and the technical and economic aspects of the proposed system are compared with the corresponding characteristics of the existing renewable energy systems, i.e., micro hydropower and solar power. The study shows that when there is not enough sunlight for the solar PV system and not enough water flow coupled with maintenance problems in the micro hydropower system, the distributed wind energy system may function as a substitute system.

The article presents the issues of building a diagnostic knowledge base regarding a hybrid power system for the needs of the organization of the process of examining the condition of the object. The basis for obtaining diagnostic information about the devices of the hybrid power system is the functional and diagnostic analysis of the tested object. The effect of the building process is a functional and diagnostic structure model, designated sets of basic elements and measuring signals along with the assigned standard measured signals. Keywords: technical diagnostics, diagnostic reasoning, multivalent logic, artificial intelligence

Vortex Hydro Energy is commercializing a University of Michigan patented MHK device, the VIVACE converter (Vortex Induced Vibration Aquatic Clean Energy). Unlike water turbines, it does not use propeller blades. Rather, river or ocean currents flow around cylinders causing them to move up and down in Flow Induced Motions (FIM). This kinetic energy of the cylinder is then converted to electricity. Importantly, the VIVACE converter is simpler in design and more cost effective than water turbines. This project accelerated the development of the VIVACE technology. Funding from the DOE enabled VHE to accelerate the development in three ways. One was to increase the efficiency of the hydrodynamics of the system. This aided in maximizing the power output for a wide range of water speeds. The second was to design, build, and test an efficient power take-off (PTO) that converted the most power from the VIVACE cylinders into electricity. This effort was necessary because of the nature of power generated using this technology. Although the PTO uses off-the-shelf components, it is specifically tuned to the specific water flow characteristics. The third way the development was accelerated was by testing the improved Beta 1B prototype over a longer period of time in a river. The greatest benefit from the longer open-water testing-period is a better understand of the power generation characteristics of the system as well as the maintenance lifespan of the device. Renewable energy generation is one of today’s most challenging global dilemmas. The energy crisis requires tapping into every source of energy and developing every technology that can generate energy at a competitive cost within the next 50 years. Development of VIVACE will bolster domestic energy security and mitigate global climate change. There are numerous commercial and military applications for a fully developed system, which could generate clean/renewable energy from small scale (1-5kW) to medium scale (500kW) to large scale (100MW). Applications span from small portable devices, to direct water pumping for irrigation, direct pumping for desalination, off-shore stations, idle ships, coastal naval bases, coastal communities, and utility companies. Large areas with no natural resources such as the Caribbean or the Polynesia, sparsely populated areas like Alaska, long slow flows like the Netherlands channels, areas that need desalinated water, need VIVACE as a reliable and environmentally compatible technology to generate MHK Power.

The VIVACE converter was introduced at OMAE2006 as a single, smooth, circular-cylinder module. The hydrodynamics of VIVACE is being improved continuously to achieve higher density in harnessed hydrokinetic power. Intercylinder spacing and passive turbulence control (PTC) through selectively located roughness are effective tools in enhancement of flow induced motions (FIMs) under high damping for power harnessing. Single cylinders harness energy at high density even in 1 knot currents. For downstream cylinders, questions were raised on energy availability and sustainability of high-amplitude FIM. Through PTC and intercylinder spacing, strongly synergetic FIMs of 2/3/4 cylinders are achieved. Two-cylinder smooth/PTC, and three/four-cylinder PTC systems are tested experimentally. Using the “PTC-to-FIM” map developed in previous work at the Marine Renewable Energy Laboratory (MRELab), PTC is applied and cylinder response is measured for inflow center-to-center distance 2D-5D (D = diameter), transverse center-to-center distance 0.5–1.5 D, Re ε [28,000–120,000], m* ε [1.677–1.690], U ε [0.36–1.45 m/s], aspect ratio l/D = 10.29, and m*ζ ε [0.0283–0.0346]. All experiments are conducted in the low turbulence free surface water (LTFSW) channel of MRELab. Amplitude spectra and broad field-of-view (FOV) visualization help reveal complex flow structures and cylinder interference undergoing VIV, interference/ proximity/wake/soft/hard galloping. FIM amplitudes of 2.2–2.8D are achieved for all cylinders in steady flow for all parameter ranges tested.