Littoral Power Systems, Inc5 Dover Street , New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States

Tidal and river current energy represents the world’s most consistent renewable energy source.  It is not constrained by external unknowns as is the case for solar or wind power.  Estimates range from thousands to millions of gigawatt-hours of untapped energy throughout the world.     The LPS systems can be configured to suit demand: as demand increases, larger farms are built by ganging multiple units together.  The concept of a standard lower-cost units ganged together to create various energy producing systems is not new, and is the basis for the success of, e.g., the solar industry.  LPS adheres to this basic concept in hydropower and hydrokinetic technologies, to enable substantial market penetration and commercial acceptability.

Hydropower has been around for thousands of years, but traditional techniques involving poured-in-place concrete structures and impoundments that flood previously usable land have fallen into disfavor from licensing agencies.  LPS has conceived a new approach that offers much lighter environmental impacts and excellent return on investment.    In the LPS approach, all of the equipment is prefabricated offsite, easily transported into place, and only final assembly takes place on site.  This scheme for prosecuting low-head/run-of-the-river hydropower offers several significant advantages over conventional techniques, particularly in light of recent legislation:

• greatly reduced civil works expense 
• rapid deployment
• minimal environmental impacts, from construction to decommissioning
• eligible for Class I RPS standards
• 2013 greatly streamlined FERC regulations for small hydro development
• in the U.S. alone, the new stream reach opportunity would amount to 260 TWh/year in clean power,  reduce CO2 emissions by 199 million tons/yr, and  power 23 million homes
• additionally, the LPS approach is a viable, cost-effective repair solution for compromised and dangerous dams