Technical

Technical Summary

  • The Eurogen project commenced as a wave technology project that quickly determined, through the naval architecture and oceanography wave climates bodies of knowledge, a viable commercial wave power station would require to be bigger than a modern aircraft carrier.
  • Discussions with some of the world’s major electricity distributors identified and better defined the key performance characteristics for any supplier, and highlighted the futile characteristics of much of the renewable energy technologies.
  • Some seven years of research, development and creating innovative intellectual property has manifested itself in our power stations incorporating the Eurogen turbine technologies. These technologies require minimal civil engineering and provide a minimal environmental footprint.
  • The Eurogen Power Station is the only renewable energy technology that might eventually claim the status of being a true baseload generator. The Eurogen Power Station proposes to decentralise electricity generation, with zero carbon emissions and no demand for cooling water.
  • Optimisation of the Eurogen Turbine is being conducted in Australia and will be capable of obtaining Bureau Veritas certification, or equivalent, regarding the currents within it can operate, and the electrical off-take for each model of Turbine. As this certification becomes available, governments and bankers will have a new framework within which renewable energy might be considered.

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Run Of River Power Station, Germany

The Eurogen Power Station

Almost all of the existing water turbine technologies appear to be variations of a three bladed propeller model. Betz published a paper on this configuration around 1924, and many inventors make reference to this work in their published materials. It appears that all of the propeller blade turbines work in free flowing fluid (air or water) currents to varying degrees. The references to ‘lift’ and ‘drag’ of the propeller blades and how these factors are managed lead to many variations on the theme.

The Eurogen Turbines incorporated into the Eurogen Power Station – represent a paradigm shift in thinking about how turbines work, and why a different approach had to be pursued for the successful commercialization of free flowing river and ocean currents.

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Run of River Power Station at Bad Säckingen on the River Rhine, Germany

Cost Comparisons 

A common benchmark used within the existing electricity generating industry is the installed cost of a facility in terms of the electricity ‘off-take’ delivered, often expressed in $ per kWe of capacity.  In the UK, the DTI or Carbon Trust regularly provide figures on the contemporary costings of the various competing technologies. Lignite and anthracite coals are at the lower end of the scale, followed by gas, nuclear and then solar, wind, wave and tidal technologies. Examples can range from USD$1,000/kW up to USD$6,000/kW. Each case has to be examined on its merits and other factors have to be also considered.

The Eurogen Power Station is designed to be a modular baseload electricity generator. The units can function in small communities with a few installations. In all cases it is planned that the capital costs per MWe for the Eurogen Power Stations are at the lower end of the industry scale. There are no carbon emissions and no requirement for cooling water. The site environmental footprint is planned at the lowest end of the scale for all technologies. Every unit can be easily relocated to alternate sites – only cabling rendered unsuitable in recovery might in some cases be an additional cost. 

As a means of comparison costs are expressed below in terms of net AC power available to the grid for the installed capacity. For Eurogen Power we have used a series of industry acceptable assumptions along with factual knowledge of commercial costs for the various materials that make up the power stations. As modelled, hydro is assumed to have seasonal storage so that it can be dispatched within a season, but overall operation is limited by resources available by site and season.

Note: These results do not include targeted tax credits such as the production or investment tax credit available for some technologies, which could significantly affect the levelized cost estimate. For example, new solar thermal and PV plants are eligible to receive a 30-percent investment tax credit on capital expenditures if placed in service before the end of 2016, and 10 percent thereafter.

Levelized costs are a full economic assessment of the cost of the energy-generating system including all the costs over its lifetime (e.g. initial investment, operations and maintenance, cost of fuel, cost of capital). Levelized costs include the initial capital, return on investment, as well as the costs of continuous operation, fuel, and maintenance. Current levelized costs also reflect increasing efficiency and longer lifespan of technologies together with reduced production costs (digression rate). For Eurogen we have not had this benefit and despite this our entry point is still cheaper than any other technology.

Levelized costs do NOT include health damage by coal plants, decommissioning costs of nuclear plant, waste disposal, parasitic load ie the portion of generated power actually used to run the stations pumps and fans. R&D, tax, and environmental impacts are also not included as is the massive amounts of fresh water required for cooling purposes by both coal and nuclear plants.

Capacity Factor Comparisons

Unlike other renewable energy technologies Eurogen has been designed to deliver power 24/7/365. This means that base load electricity can be generated eliminating the problem of intermittent technologies.