Remote communities often rely on fossil fuels to produce their electricity. The climate change impacts of these generation systems are exacerbated by the transportation of fuel to the generation sites. Additionally, the volatile cost of fuel and transportation services places a financial burden on these communities. For these reasons, the adoption of community-scale renewable energy systems is advantageous.

One company, Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC), has developed the RivGen Power System to harness run-of-river current power. The RivGen is integrated as part of a microgrid solution where the RivGen unit produces continuous baseload energy (40-80 kW) to a community. Excess or unused electricity is stored in an energy storage system, such as a battery bank, and excess demand is trimmed with a diesel generator.