Accio Energy has announced that it was awarded US$ 4.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The funding will be used to support Accio Energy’s transformational work developing utility-scale electrohydrodynamic (EHD) wind energy generation systems.
The Accio Energy team is partnering with the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center to design, build, and test progressive prototypes and develop offshore validation of performance, scalability, and operability in real world conditions. EHD technology uses the wind to separate a mist of positively charged water droplets from excess electrons that form a high voltage direct current source. EHD systems will operate on seawater; be built using high-volume, low-cost automotive heritage advance manufacturing; offer deep-water deployment options and radar compatibility; and be sufficiently robust to survive expected storm conditions. Accio Energy has demonstrated EHD at laboratory scale and commercially relevant power densities.
