**Title**: Energy in the North - Moriel Arango
**Date**: December 18, 2024
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Moriel Arango


00;00;00;24 - 00;00;08;05 [Moriel Arango] We believe that with five kilowatts we'll be able to satisfy all of the needs of that fish camp and possibly even more.

00;00;08;05 - 00;00;16;29 [Amanda Byrd] This week on Energy in the North, I continue my conversation with Moriel Arango, the Chief Executive Officer and the chief technology officer for BladeRunner Energy. Moriel's team is developing a hydrokinetic device to harness the power of naturally flowing water, and they've been working with our marine energy team testing their device at the Tanana River Test site near Nenana. This past summer, I asked him how much power could be generated for remote Alaska communities from this technology.

00;00;36;02 - 00;00;44;02 [Moriel Arango] So we've been designing the rotor so that it can hit five kilowatts at 1.8 meters per second. So that would be roughly a little under six feet per second, which is very relevant to at least the Tanana. And my understanding is very relevant to the other rivers around here. So at the moment is very much focused for satisfying smaller loads. So the upcoming pilot project that we are working towards is in a fish camp where the load is not that large, but we believe that with five kilowatts we'll be able to satisfy all of the needs of that fish camp and possibly even more. Then over time we can start to then take a more of an array approach so we can increase that capacity depending on the river itself and the location. Maybe we can have five units. So I'd be 25 kilowatts. It's not going to displace possibly 100% of the diesel consumption in larger areas, but it can definitely make an impact.

00;01;43;06 - 00;01;46;01 [Amanda Byrd] here every community is located on a on a river, it seems like it might be really applicable to a wide a range of communities

00;01;51;07 - 00;01;52;29 [Moriel Arango] So I think a hybrid approach is probably going to be the most economical and efficient way of doing things; bringing in some solar, diesel and hydrokinetics will probably be the most applicable way of kind of satisfying these these needs.
 But yes, at least with flowing water, it's happening 24 hours a day. So you're not subject to intermittency associated with solar and wind that we all know of. It's going to allow us or it would allow a hybrid microgrid to be able to reduce the amount of batteries. The battery component is pretty expensive. So having a little bit more of that baseload coming from hydro is what should really, at the end make things more economical.

00;02;42;29 - 00;02;45;04 [Amanda Byrd] You're still in the R&D phase. When do you think you will be commercially available?

00;02;49;12 - 00;03;08;00 [Moriel Arango] We first need to get through our first pilot project that ideally will happen next year. The intent is to have a deployment that lasts all season at this fish camp. So that would be happening between late May through the end of September. That would give us roughly four and a half months of runtime. We will see what happens there. Undoubtedly, we will learn something from that pilot project that we can make further improvements on, but it will also, I mean, that will kind of be the the spot that we need to reach to start to commercialize this. So hopefully within a year and a half.

00;03;30;29 - 00;03;32;02 [Amanda Byrd] That's incredible. You've got to be so excited about that.

00;03;33;16 - 00;03;34;00 [Moriel Arango] Yeah, Yeah, No. Very much so. It's kind of what we've been striving for all along. So just going to try to make it happen.

00;03;43;20 - 00;03;53;05 [Amanda Byrd] Mario Arango is the CEO and CTO of BladeRunner Energy. And I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.