An artist's rendering of the SeaGen marine current generator from above and below the surface.
Posted on 07/17/2008 6:54:45 PM PDT by rawhide
Sloshing back and forth in constant rhythm, the ocean's tides are a predictable source of renewable energy.
Hoping to tap into this, the world's largest tidal turbine is set to start generating electricity this month.
The installation of the SeaGen marine current generator was completed this past May in Strangford Lough, a large inlet on the coast of Northern Ireland.
The system, designed and built by Marine Current Turbines Ltd., has two rotors that each span 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter.
"The technology is very analogous to wind, except we are doing everything underwater," said Peter Fraenkel, the company's technical director.
The maximum power output of the SeaGen will be 1.2 megawatts — four times more than any other turbine. Operating for roughly 20 hours per day, it is expected to supply 1,000 homes.
The $20 million SeaGen is a single tower, moored to the seafloor a quarter-mile (400 meters) from shore. It is designed to catch both the incoming (flow) and outgoing (ebb) tides by rotating its two rotors 180 degrees.
No power is generated during tide changes, as the turbine only works when the water is moving 2 knots (2.3 mph) or more.
The rotor blades are similar to those on wind turbines. That's because the same basic physics applies to wind streams and tidal currents.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
An artist's rendering of the SeaGen marine current generator from above and below the surface.
But this will slow down the ocean and might injure fish...
You beat me to it. There must be some “endagered” fish around there that could be chopped into chum but those blades. Or maybe scared into not mating.
Then again, this is Ireland, not the USA. I doubt they have an Endagered Species Act.
Decapitated whales! Oh the HUMANITY!
I think that might mess up the gulf stream, I saw it on “Superfriends”
At least this makes more sense than wind power.
Tides are at least predictable, so you know when you are going to have to ramp up your “supplemental” conventional power generation.
It’s a good idea, and I hope it works....and doesn’t turn into a bigger problem.
Scotland-based Pelamis Wave Power's snakelike device was the first to provide power to the grid when it was installed off the coast of Orkney, Scotland, in 2004. In October 2007, Pelamis deployed three of its 750-kilowatt devices--770-ton, 120-meter-long chains of metal cylinders--off the coast of Portugal.
A company called Wavegen now operate a commercial wave power station called "Limpet" on the Scottish island of Islay.
That's gonna take one hell of a battery pack to sustain the current 24/356.
Not only that; slow down the Gulf Stream currents and start the next Ice Age earlier.
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