Welcome to the Oscillating-Foils Hydrokinetic Turbine (HAO) webpage

This website presents the development timeline of the oscillating-foils hydrokinetic turbine (HAO) from 2003 to 2014 by the research group of professor Guy Dumas at the Mechanical Engineering Department of Laval University.

A hydrokinetic turbine is an underwater turbine similar in purpose to a wind turbine, but operating in river and tide flows instead.

The oscillating-foils hydrokinetic turbine uses oscillating foils (wings) to extract energy from the flowing water instead of conventional rotating blades. Field tests were conducted in 2009 by Professor Dumas' group on the prototype HAO-1. Results confirmed the great potential of the oscillating-foils turbine with performances competitive with rotating blades technologies.

The second development project covers the years 2012-2014 and consists in the development of the second-generation HAO turbine (HAO-2). Its main objective is to transfer and make commercially operational the results of the research work performed since 2004 at Laval University on the HAO technology. This project is funded by the Ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation (MDEIE) within its program to support technology development and transfer (Programme de soutien à la valorisation et au transfert (PSVT), volet «Soutien à l'innovation sociale et aux projets structurants en valorisation et transfert»).

> Official press release from the MDEIE

Our partners in this project are JAMEC, the Centre Local de Développement de Maria Chapdelaine and the Société de Valorisation SOVAR.

You can explore this site using the links in the blue banner at the top of this page. These include some background on hydrokinetic turbines, a timeline of the research projects conducted at Laval University in connection with oscillating wings, a description of the test campaign on our first prototype HAO 1, a dedicated page to our current project HAO 2, a links section and a video section not to be missed!

FRENCH VERSION