COURTESY / ORPC INC.
Seen here is ORPC’s first RivGen device operating in the Kvichak River at the remote Alaskan village of Igiugig in April 2020.
Updated: August 12, 2020
Mechanic Falls fabricator to build parts for second underwater power system
COURTESY / ORPC INC.
Downeast Machine team members are seen at the company’s Leeds fabrication facility during construction of ORPC's first RivGen device in 2018.
By Staff
ORPC Inc., an energy solutions company headquartered in Portland, has selected Downeast Machine & Engineering of Mechanic Falls to build the structural components for ORPC’s second commercial RivGen Power System device.
Downeast Machine’s headquarters is in Mechanic Falls and its fabrication facility is in Leeds, and has clients throughout northern New England.
It will play a role in ORPC plans to install the renewable energy generator in Igiugig, Alaska, in 2021. ORPC develops microgrid underwater renewable energy systems that generate power from free-flowing rivers and tidal currents.
The multiyear RivGen project is supported in part by funding to the village of Igiugig from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technology Office and Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs, as well as private investment.
ORPC installed the first RivGen device, also constructed and assembled by Downeast Machine, in the village’s local Kvichak River in 2019.
When completed, the Igiugig project will feature two RivGen devices, smart grid controls and an energy storage system, resulting in enough renewable river energy to decrease the community's use of diesel fuel for power by 90%.
“The Igiugig-ORPC partnership is the model marine renewable energy project in the United States today and exemplifies a long-term and predictable renewable energy solution available to remote communities around the world,” ORPC CEO Stuart Davies, who succeeded ORPC founder and CEO Chris Sauer in January.
In addition to its Portland headquarters, ORPC has an operations center in Eastport and an engineering laboratory in Brunswick, where Downeast Machine will assist ORPC engineers with final system integration of the RivGen device.
“We are very excited to, again, have the opportunity to work with ORPC in the manufacture, fabrication and assembly of a second RivGen device,” Michael Bertrand, project manager for Downeast Machine, said in the release. “These large-scale, fabricated assemblies are uniquely suited to our highly skilled fabricators and industrial-sized fabrication facility.”
ORPC has a project office in Alaska, operates subsidiaries in Montreal (ORPC Canada) and Dublin (ORPC Ireland), and is working with project partners in Patagonia, Chile.
Downeast Machine, which was founded in 1979, purchased its Leeds facility in 2011, retrofitting it using a Maine Rural Development Authority loan. The facility specializes in large fabricated drums, vats, tanks and other products in stainless steel, high end stainless alloys and carbon steel, transforming plates of steel into fabricated, machined and painted fully finished and customer-ready products.
ORPC, also known as Ocean Renewable Power Co., was founded in 2004 and is the first company to have built, operated and delivered power to a utility grid from a tidal energy project (in Maine), and to a remote community grid from a river energy project (in Alaska).
The company unveiled its first commercial RivGen Power System in April 2019, in a ceremony attended by Gov. Janet Mills at Brunswick Landing.
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