TURBULENT

Their core work

Turbulent is a Belgian SME that develops and commercializes small-scale, low-head hydropower turbines designed to generate clean energy from rivers, canals, and irrigation channels with minimal environmental impact. Their core technology enables distributed renewable energy generation at water infrastructure that conventional hydro cannot exploit. Beyond hardware, they participate in EU projects on smart water management and community energy systems, positioning their turbines within broader water-energy nexus solutions.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Turbulent entered H2020 in 2019 with a clear hardware focus — developing and scaling their low-head hydropower turbine technology through an SME Instrument grant. By 2020, they broadened into water smartness, circular economy, and community energy systems as a participant in larger Innovation Action consortia. This shift suggests a company moving from product development to ecosystem integration, embedding their technology into wider water-energy infrastructure solutions.

Turbulent is evolving from a single-product hydropower company toward a broader water-energy systems player, making them increasingly relevant for projects combining water infrastructure with distributed clean energy.

How they like to work

Turbulent balances leadership and partnership — they coordinated their core technology project (Turbulent, SME-2) while joining two large Innovation Actions as a participant. With 62 unique partners across 15 countries from just 3 projects, they operate in large, diverse consortia rather than small focused teams. This suggests an SME comfortable contributing specialized technology components within big multi-partner projects.

Despite only 3 projects, Turbulent has built a remarkably wide network of 62 partners across 15 countries, largely through participation in two large Innovation Actions. Their network spans a broad European geography rather than concentrating in any single region.

What sets them apart

Turbulent occupies a rare niche at the intersection of hydropower and water infrastructure — their turbines work at ultra-low water head levels where no conventional hydro technology is viable. This makes them a unique technology provider for projects needing distributed clean energy from existing water channels, irrigation systems, or wastewater flows. For consortium builders, they bring both a concrete commercial product and growing expertise in water-energy integration.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Turbulent
  Their namesake project received EUR 2.46M under the SME Instrument — a strong validation signal for their core hydropower technology, and by far their largest single grant.
• B-WaterSmart
  Demonstrates their expansion beyond energy hardware into smart water governance, data solutions, and circular economy — signaling strategic diversification into the water-energy nexus.