Irish company DesignPro has started with the construction of the hydrokinetic device planned for deployment this spring in France.
The 25kW run-of-river hydrokinetic turbine has this week progressed from the design into the build phase in preparation for deployment scheduled for April, according to the Ireland-based hydrokinetic developer GKinetic whose concept is being used for DesignPro machines.
The device will be deployed at SEENEOH test site on the Garonne River in Bordeaux after it undergoes initial tow tests in Limerick Docks, DesignPro said earlier.
DesignPro will be the second company to use the SEENEOH site with HydroQuest, a French device developer, being the first .
The 25kW device will remain at the facility for one year until being lifted out and relocated to a commercial deployment site in April 2019, GKinetic said.
The building and testing of the device has been supported with €2.7 million of EU Horizon 2020 funding, secured by DesignPro in March last year.