Research Portal

The Vectron2 Project: Turbulence Measurements for the In-stream Tidal Energy Industry

March 2019 – November 2021

The Vectron is a new sensor used for measuring turbulence velocity within a tidal turbine’s swept area.  The Vectron has been successfully prototyped, where next steps are to take the technology to the ‘industry-ready’ stage of development and the focus of this project.

Real-Time Detection of Marine Mammals in High Flow Environments

May 2019 – September 2021

The project research goal is to design and test an innovative acoustic sensor system that will feature a wireless magneto-inductive (MI) communications link – to alert users in real time of the presence and location of marine mammals in high noise tidal environments.  The research entails a field

Development of Acoustic Doppler Aquatic Animal Monitoring (ADAAM) for application to marine life movement in high-energy tidal channels

March 2018 – February 2021

Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) are a standard tool used for measuring ocean currents.

Multipurpose X-Band Marine Radar Network for the Minas Passage

January – November 2019

Marine X-band radar locates vessels and features, including coastlines and buoys.  It filters distracting signals (eg.

Multi-Scale Turbulence Measurement in the Aquatron Laboratory

July 2018 – July 2019

This project has two primary objectives - to characterize the flow and turbulence in the Aquatron facility pool tank using turbulence sensors calibrated against a traceable standard; and to test technologies for investigating the horizontal variability of turbulence in real-world tidal channels.

Remote Acoustic Measurements of Turbulence in High-Flow Tidal Channels during High Wave Conditions

April 2018 – April 2019

Many of the high-flow tidal channels targeted for worldwide in-stream hydro-electric development are impacted by surface gravity waves incident from a large exterior basin (e.g. the Bay of Fundy/Gulf of Maine/North Atlantic).

STREEM: Sensor Testing Research for Environmental Effects Monitoring

October 2018 – March 2019

The research goal was to enhance understanding on sensor performance and sensor-to-sensor interactions to inform environmental effects monitoring (EEM) protocol for future tidal turbine deployments.

Innovative Solutions for De-risking Species Detections in Tidal Energy Environmental Effects Monitoring Programs

April 2018 – March 2019

With collaboration from Genome Atlantic, this research project is using a new environmental DNA technology to rapidly identify and determine abundance of different fish species in high-flow marine conditions. Experiments were conducted at Dalhousie University’s Aquatron facility. N

Optimized Combinations of Tidal, Wind and Solar Electricity Generation with Energy Storage to Meet Nova Scotia’s Electrical Demand

August 2018 – March 2019

Wind, solar and tidal-generated electricity each have different, but potentially complimentary, cyclic times.

Geoscience » Georges Bank Research & Data

Georges Bank Research & Data

January 2019

Georges Bank is a large submarine bank (250km by 150km – 40,000 km2) located at the edge of the Atlantic continental shelf between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia.