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

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. To ready the Vectron for industry use, the research entails a series of field trials to take place at the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) site in the Minas Passage. The research will involve testing different deployment techniques to evaluate and identify the changes and/or upgrades needed for the Vectron. The goal is to reduce the Vectron’s overall power consumption as well as bring its deployment costs down.  Turbulence velocity data will be collected during the deployment trials. Data analyses coupled with numerical model development will lead to improved understanding of the effects of turbulence on turbine durability and performance.