Tidal power turbines for Strangford Lough

probe

"New Scientist" 21.08.2007

quote:

By the end of the year, twin underwater turbines should be generating 1.2 MW of electricity off the coast of Northern Ireland in a landmark demonstration of tidal power technology.

Marine Current Turbines, a company based in Bristol had hoped to begin installing the turbines at Strangford Lough on Monday, but the construction barge scheduled to deliver the turbines was delayed. A company spokesman says the installation will now take place later in 2007. It will be the world's largest tidal power project*.

The underwater turbines look and work very much like wind power turbines. Each blade is 15 to 20 metres across and is mounted on an axis that attaches to a 3-metre-wide pile driven into the seabed.

Tide-driven currents will move the rotors at speeds of between 10 and 20 revolutions per minute, which the company claims is too slow to affect marine life. The turbines will drive a gearbox that will, in turn, drive an electric generator and the resulting electricity will be transmitted to the shore via an underwater cable.

The Strangford Lough tidal generator is intended purely as a demonstration project. Eventually, MCT intends to build farms of turbines consisting of 10 to 20 pairs each.

Each turbine requires a piece of equipment called a jack-up barge for installation. The barge anchors itself to the sea floor and drills a hole that sets the turbines in place.

"Of the 60-odd [tidal power] projects I've seen, this seems like the best," says Dave Elliott, a professor in technology policy at the Open University in Milton Keynes.

"It's an interesting period," Elliott adds. "You have lots of approaches and lots of innovative projects. The straightforward underwater propeller seems like the winner."

Elliott says that tidal and wave power could eventually provide between 15% and 20% of the Britain's electricity needs. But he believes that operators need to develop experience with the technology before the price of energy generated in this way falls to levels comparable to wind power.

unquote

http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12519-underwater-turbines-set-to-generate-record-power.html

Map: http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=54.472935~-5.628437&style=r&lvl=11&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&encType=1


*The first and still largest tidal power project in the world is on the Rance river in Brittany 24 X 10,000 kW generators (ie 240 MW) which was opened in 1967. The structure also acts as a road bridge (0,75km long) (D168).

One suspects that the marine current turbines discussed in the above article could also be used along rivers in place of conventional hydro-electric dams, providing a less "blocking" (eg in terms of fish swimming freely and boating movements etc) solution to hydro-electricicty generation than conventional river hydro stations.

.probe

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usine_mar%C3%A9motrice_de_la_Rance

Map: http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=48.618059~-2.015584&style=r&lvl=15&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&encType=1

ircoha

not much inflation in France between 1967 and 2007, in fact deflation.

"Au total, l'usine a coûté à l'époque 620 millions de francs de 1967(ce qui correspond à environ 95 millions d'euros de 2007)"

One suspects that the marine current turbines discussed in the above article could also be used along rivers in place of conventional hydro-electric dams, providing a less "blocking" (eg in terms of fish swimming freely and boating movements etc) solution to hydro-electricicty generation than conventional river hydro stations.

One suspects not unless one is wanting to make Finding Nemo II

Un regulated river flows are unpredictable and hence are of little value.

Tidal flows are extremely predictable hence the french scheme


The french scheme is tidal.

Despite the belfast agreement I prefer to shop local.
http://www.openhydro.com/envEnergy.html

Capt'n Midnight

sounds good