New Energy’s EnCurrent Turbine is based on the design of the vertical axis Darrieus Windmill which was patented by French Inventor Georges Darrieus in 1927. The National Research Council of Canada worked with the vertical axis design in early research on both windmills and hydroelectric turbines.

The research program undertaken by the NRC on the vertical axis hydroelectric turbine was led by Barry Davis and Theirry Faure. This program validated the use of this technology for the generation of electricity and resulted in the creation of two laboratory models and three prototypes.

• Units A and A-1
  Testing of these laboratory models was carried out at the NRC’s Hydraulic Laboratory in Ottawa. These served to validate the hydraulic concepts of the vertical axis turbine.
• Unit B-1
  The 25 kW B-1 Turbine was installed in the St. Lawrence River near Cornwall over two summers, generating electricity for over 2200 hours. During the first summer, the B-1 was installed in a ducted configuration and generated a maximum of 5.2 kW in a 1.5 m/s current. In the second summer of operation, the B-1 was installed in a non-ducted configuration and generated a maximum of 4 kW in a 1.9 m/s current.
• Unit B-2
  The ducted B-2 Turbine was installed in the sluice gate of an existing hydro facility at Marshall Falls, on the East River near Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia. The initial installation encountered a failure of its duct due to higher than expected pressure pulsations. The unit was subsequently re-designed and reinstalled at Marshall Falls and generated up to 25 kW of electricity.
• TOR-5
  The TOR-5 Turbine was a 5 kW off-grid standalone system that was mounted on a standard 18 foot fiberglass boat hull. The TOR-5 was installed at Rocky Run, located under a railway trestle at the seaward entrance to Porters Lake in Halifax County. Tests on the TOR-5 showed that it generated 5 kW of power output at 2.35 m/s.