Verdant Power Water Turbine Being Lowered into New York’s East River

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued its first license for a tidal energy project to Verdant Power.  The Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) Project is located in New York’s East River just west of Roosevelt Island.

Since 2006, Verdant Power has been testing six underwater turbines installed on the river bed to generate electricity.  Under the new ten year license, Verdant will build and install turbines with a total generating capacity of 1 MW of electrical power. Five turbines are expected to be operating by the fourth quarter of 2013 and a total of 30 generators should be installed by 2015. The pilot project is intended to demonstrate the commercial viability of the technology and to study the environmental impact on fish and the river’s sediment.   The East River is not actually a river, but a tidal estuary through which powerful tidal currents ebb and flood daily.  The turbines will now tap some of the energy from these currents to produce clean and renewable energy.