ORPC, Inc., in the business of improving people’s lives and their environment through sustainable energy solutions.
Irish partner ÉireComposites Teo, experts in design, testing and manufacturing of composites, are pleased to announce ÉireComposites’ completion of turbines for ORPC’s commercial RivGen Power System slated for installation in the Kvichak River, Igiugig, Alaska, this summer.
“ÉireComposites is delighted to have played a key part in the development of ORPC’s commercial RivGen Power System,” remarked Tomas Flanagan, ÉireComposites’ owner. “Our manufacture of the foils illustrates our company’s ability to use our core talents to develop innovative new commercial products.”
ORPC Director of European Operations, James Donegan, added, “It’s been a pleasure to work with ÉireComposites and to benefit from their proprietary expertise, including their patented powder epoxy composite manufacturing method and utilization of a robust first-ofa-kind composite joint design that will increase reliability and service life of the RivGen Power System. With these ÉireComposites-built turbines, we will also increase turbine capture area and, thereby, increase power output.”
The RivGen Power System is a big step forward for the future sustainability of nearly 2 billion mostly indigenous people worldwide who live in remote, off-grid communities, 700 million of whom currently rely on very expensive, environmentally-risky diesel fuel to power their homes. This first commercial system will be installed in the Kvichak River at Igiugig, Alaska, this summer, and provide electricity to the remote community, offsetting the village’s diesel fuel use by up to one-half and moving it closer to using diesel fuel for emergencybackup only.
ORPC is nearing conclusion of a growth capital offering via Netcapital. A portion of the raise is reserved for Main Street investors, though primarily directed at impact and institutional investors under the SEC’s Crowdfunding rules adopted under the JOBS Act. Worldwide, ORPC is the only company to have built, operated and delivered power to a utility grid from a renewable tidal energy project (in Maine), and to a remote community grid from a renewable river project (in Alaska). In addition to its Portland, Maine, company headquarters, ORPC has offices in Montreal (ORPC Canada) and Dublin (ORPC Ireland), an operations center in Eastport, Maine, and a project office in Anchorage, Alaska. For more information, visit www.orpc.co.
ÉireComposites is an innovative design, manufacturing, and testing company, involved in lightweight, high performance, fiber-reinforced composite materials, with an international blue-chip customer base of over 70 companies in the aerospace, automotive and renewable energy sectors. ÉireComposites is located in Galway, Ireland.
Design of the RivGen turbines is supported through funding from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. The Igiugig RivGen Project is also supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Water Power Technologies Office Award Number DE-EE0007348 to the Igiugig Village Council.
