Sustainable Solutions Interview - Sundermann Water Power
Vic Nikolsky, Managing Director

What does your business do?

Sundermann Water Power is an unlisted public company currently developing a
submerged water turbine which can deliver electrical power to the grid or
power a remote site. The turbine has been specifically designed to maximize operational efficiency in slow to medium speed water flows of 6-12 knots. It is designed to generate electricity from land based waterways and tidal movements at sea.

What makes your business green/sustainable?

As the energy source is derived from tidal movements and naturally occurring water flows, our turbine should produce renewable electrical energy with virtually no impact on our environment.

As the turbine will be submerged there is no visual pollution, a major advantage of the turbine. Our turbine has been designed to operate at low rotational speeds and will be fitted with protective grilles to ensure large marine life cannot enter the turbine whilst small marine life will be able to pass through the turbine unharmed.

Due to its simple and efficient design and portability, it should be ideally situated for placement in remote areas, in isolated communities and in third world countries where infrastructure is not well developed, or where major infrastructure work would be expensive and damaging to the environment.

It is designed to replace the diesel generators that are used in remote communities. I must say we have had tremendous interest and community support for the development of this technology.

Cost of power production.

This turbine design has the potential to convert water movement into power at a very efficient rate. I expect that the cost of power will be less than the cost of current wind power and that infrastructure costs should be considerably less. Unlike wind power generators, however, that only provide peak power, tidal turbines have the capacity to produce base power. That is, by utilizing the differences in tidal patterns (sometimes even within a small distance), strategically placed turbines in a tidal environment have the potential to produce continuous power over 24 hours with little additional infrastructural costs.

What did you do before you started your green/sustainable business?

Before becoming involved in this company, I studied metallurgy and then worked for General Motors Holden, holding several senior positions including National Service Manager and National Field Operations Manager. After this, I was National After Sales Executive with Saab Scania and later with Berendsen Fluid Power, a hydraulic Engineering company.

I have had an interest in renewable energy for a long time. In 2003, I negotiated a multi- million dollar contract to manufacture Hydraulic Power Units in Australia for Vestas Wind Turbines. Subsequently, I became a foundation member of the Victorian Wind Energy Network, a Victorian Government initiative to develop a renewable energy manufacturing industry.

I was involved in this program over eight years and was lucky enough to participate in four Victorian Government Trade Missions to Europe, during which time I gained considerable experience in wind farm projects and alternate energy generation.

I am currently a senior executive in a large Engineering company based in Sale, Victoria. I have worked closely with the inventor, Fred Sundermann for several years and became managing director of the company in 2007.

What have been some of the biggest challenges of maintaining high standards of social and environmental responsibility?

There are always risks in venture capital projects. The biggest problem we and other developers of alternate energy seem to have is to find enough people with a social conscience who are sufficiently interested to invest capital in projects such as ours to help bring them to fruition.

As far as the project itself goes, it has been a challenge to design it so that it will potentially deliver real benefits to communities without impacting on their surrounding environment. We have been especially conscious of the need to ensure that marine life and marine environment will not be damaged by the turbine, and to ensure that the visual impact of the turbine will be minimized.

What's been your proudest moment as a green/sustainable business owner?

This has been a long journey. The proudest moment for me has undoubtedly been to see so many people at the he launch which was held at the Marriott Hotel in Melbourne earlier in the year, and that we now have investors who have now placed trust in us to bring the project forward. We could use a few more at present.

What is the most hopeful sign you've seen recently in the green economy?

Federal legislation in setting renewable energy targets. The spin-off from this should be the development of more sustainable green energy projects.

What's the next step you're working on right now?

Design drawings of the prototype, which is scaled to one third of the anticipated size, are completed. It is anticipated that the prototype will produce 30kw of electrical energy. Subject to available funds, the company plans to commence production of a prototype turbine as soon as it can. Tenders for the construction and testing are being called from interested companies.

Once the prototype has been refined and successfully tested, we will proceed with finalizing the design and testing of a complete turbine unit. The proposed turbine unit has been designed to fit into a shipping container. Container-sized components have been designed to allow each to be locked to another so that multiple units can be joined together to form larger working units.

What green product could you not live without?

From a philosophical point of view, I believe we will in future not be able to live without the development of electrical power generated by renewable sources.