The culmination of many months of preparation from EET’s partners came together in November with a series of “sea trial” tests of the 2kW SeaUrchin. Our people were joined by consulting design engineers e3k as well as senior engineers from ATSA Defence Services Pty Ltd.

ATSA is a Newcastle defence industry contractor with expertise in submersible vehicles who provide assistance, world class resources and their wealth of experience to support EET.

A 20 tonne barge on which the SeaUrchin was mounted, was provided by the waterfront construction company, Brook and Byrne. They also provided the vessel which pushed the barge on a set course on the Georges River, south of Sydney.

Tests confirmed the performance of the SeaUrchin. Test data also validated the path for the next phase of the design and development of the nine metre diameter 1MW SeaUrchin that can power 1,000 homes.

The Georges River sea trials were the second phase of the SeaUrchin development trials. They followed the  successful static tests which were carried out in Newcastle Harbour in April this year.

Combined results of these Australian trials will be fed to our India licensee KITL, for the next phase   of endurance testing of the 2kW SeaUrchin. These tests are scheduled this month at an offshore defence research and development establishment.