About Valorka

Valorka ehf is a privately owned firm; founded in 2009 and owned by the inventor, Valdimar Össurarson.  

Headquarters are at Ásbrú; a former US military base in Keflavik, Iceland.  Tub testings are carried out in the village of Grindavík but testing grounds for sea trials are in the Hornafjörður estuary, on Iceland´s South-East coast.

Our mission is to develop a technique for harnessing the vast renewable energy of the oceans, in an economical way and without any envionmental hazard.  We develop pioneering solutions to harness the relatively slow currents,frequently found by nesses and shallows in coastal areas all around the world.  We are aware of the challenges involved, since slow currents have much less energy concentration than the fast currents of channels that most other developers are after.  Therefore our turbines will be made of lightweigth material; simple and cheap in construction; simple to operate and retrieve; without any known hazard to the environment and, last not least; have a great market potential, because such slow currents can be found in coastal areas all around the world.  

 

Valdimar Össurarson   Inventor and founder of Valorka ehf.

Role in project: CEO, project manager and inventor.

Educated as an electrician and  a quality manager, Valdimar´s earlier jobs include farming, fishing,  trade, teaching, tourism and various project management.   His previous inventions include an avalanche early warning system and a safety line for fishermen.  Also his invention for a wave energy converter, which may become a part of the tidal turbines, as the world´s first tidal- and wave hybrid.  Valdimar is now chairman of the Icelandic Association of Innovators and Inventors, and is leading a group; aiming to establish the first icelandic science center.  Along with the development of marine technology, Valdimar has prepared a project which aims to investigate and map Iceland´s ocean energy.  Also he has been
consulting the Icelandic government and Althingi on creating a policy on ocean energy; given letures in universities and in other ways promoted the neccessity of ocean energy use.

Halldór Pálsson Ph.D.  Associate Professor at the Dep. of Industrial Engineering,
Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Iceland.

Role in project:  Primary consultant for tests and mechanical development.

 

Vigfús Arnar Jósepsson  
Mechanical engineer at the engineering firm Verkis. 

Role in project:  Assisting consultant for tests and mechanical development.

 

 

Jóhann Eyvindsson  
Steel construction designer and a blacksmith, and other professions. Curr. teacher at ICE-SAR

Role in project:  Steel construction; assisting to tests etc.

Ingvar Magnússon  
Mechanical engineer and Solidworks designer; manager of Viz; design and engineering company.

Role in project:  Design and consultace.

Héðinn Valdimarsson  
Marine scientist at „Hafrannsóknastofnun“ ( Icelandic Marine Research Institute).  

Role in project:  Marine current consultation and research.

 

Hamid Jamshidnia  Ph.D.   Mechanical engineer.  Specialty: fluid dynamics.  
Postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Iceland.

Role in project: Fluid dynamics engineering.

Mentioned above are just a few of the Valorka team; more can be seen here:  The Valorka team.  

 

Roots of the Valorka project extend more than 40 years back, to the times when Valdimar was  growing up and living in Kollsvik, which is located in the Westfjord-area of Iceland; the westernmost part of Europe.  Electricity came to the area in the 1970s, but the power lines broke down frequently, stretching over long distances in mountious and difficult terrain.  At the same time, vast ocean energy is always at hand by the coast, in the form of ocean swells and strong currents.  Wouldn´t it be possible to convert this energy to electicity and put it to use?  Working as a fisherman in these waters and later all around the Icelandic coast, Valdimar´s ideas began to take shape.  In later times, the demand has grown worldwide for new methods to harness new renewable energy resources; without ruining the environment for the present and coming generations.  Many technical solutions are being developed, but none of them aims to capture the vast energy in races by capes, which are relatively slow flowing compared to some channels.  

Out of job in the 2008 crisis, Valdimar decided to put his ideas to test.  When he first presented his ideas they were met with scepticism from all directions.  Iceland is famous for its use of renewable energy and it has been a widespread misunderstanding that hydro and geothermal energy would satisfy all our energy need till the end of times.  Recently, Icelanders have awoken from this dream:  We have already used more than half of our hydro and geothermal energy and the rest will only last for a 2 or 3 decades, given the same increase in energy demand .  What then?  What about future generations?  Ever more Icelanders are now awakening from the dream, although some are still fast asleep.

After a great deal of dissappointment and denial, the project began to receive some financial support.  Some grants came from the Technology Development Fund; some from the Energy Fund and others from smaller funds.  This has kept the project going for the past 5 years.  Valdimar is the only employee, the work of others is either by contracts or volunteering.

 

Valdimar Össurarson received the IIA 2011 awards for his invention, the Valorka turbine.  IFIA (International Federation of Inventors) grants this awards for the best invention in the chosen category, which in 2011 was "sustainable energy,  climate and environment".  The IIA 2011 awards were the collaboration of IFIA and SUF (the Swedish Inventors´ Association).

The prize has been very important to the Valorka project; underlining its novelty and status among other major inventions in this sector.

 

Valorka´s turbine is the first Icelandic turbine ever to get a patent.  This is interesting in the perspective that Iceland gets all its electricity from turbine-driven generators.  

The first and only ocean energy development firm in Iceland, Valorka made history when its turbines entered sea trial in July 2013.  Ocean energy will play a significant part in future energy production and this event will probably be remembered by later generations.

The Valorka turbines are, as far as known, the first turbines in the world to enter sea trials of those intended to harness energy from currents of less than 1 m/sec in velocity.  If tests confirm the usefulness and practicality of the turbines for this purpose, the Valorka turbines may face the greatest market opportunities imaginable; given the present and growing demand for clean, dependable, renewable energy.

 

The Icelandic government has recognized the pioneering work of Valorka, and in june 2014 a governmental statement was issued, emphazising its importance and potential.  The Icelandic government is supportive towards the project and its visions, but at the same time the economic situations in Iceland are critical following the 2008 banking crisis.  Recently, Valorka and the Innovation Center of Iceland made a 3 year agreement about the ICI consultiation to the projects.  Following this; Valorka is expecting a further support from the Icelandic Technical Development Fund for the same period.  The governmental statement may be seen here.

 

In 2013 Valorka began working on Valdimar´s new invention, along with the ongoing development of tidal turbines.  This is the WATT or „Wave Assisted Tidal Turbine“:  A method of transferring energy from waves on the surface to the axis of a submerged tidal turbine; enhancing its power output and thus increasing practicality of the system as a unit.  Wave energy will provide energy from the unit while the tides are turning, and aid energy over tides.  The WATT will probably be optional, where circumstances allow buys on the surface. In other places all parts of the unit need to be totally submerged, because of ship traffic etc.

 

The pioneering development has already resulted in 5 different types of turbines; with the sixth on its way, along with the WATT.  Several more ideas are waiting to be developed.  Among them is a turbine for capturing energy from very slow flowing currents; well below 0,2 m/sec.  Such small energy concentration needs totally different approach from the water-wheel based turbines that are now being developed by Valorka, but we are confident that this can be done in a practical way; the Valorka way.

Financial support has come mainly from public competiteve funds; mostly from the IcelandicTechnology Development Fund (Tækniþróunarsjóður).  We are hoping for continuing support from public funds, until this unique project has got its proof of concept and neccessary intellectual rights have been established.  Then the project will make an attractive choice for investors.  However.....

 

.... at the same time we are happy to participate with others who wish to support our mission, either by direct finance or by colloboration, seeking common support; anyone who wants to invest in a profitable pioneering technology for greener future.