Posted on 09/28/2008 8:21:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
SCOTLAND has taken a major step towards leading the way in marine renewable energy with the announcement that the world's first tidal farms could be built within three years.
Two tidal projects, each with up to 20 turbines, could be installed on the seabed in the Pentland Firth and the Sound of Islay. A third is planned off the North Antrim coast in Northern Ireland. The aim is that all the underwater turbines would be constructed in Scotland, kickstarting the renewables industry in this country.
ScottishPower Renewables will apply for planning permission for the three tidal projects next summer. If permission is granted, they would be the first commercial underwater tidal turbine farms built anywhere in the world.
The structures stand 30 metres tall and can work as deep as 100 metres. The 20-metre blades would turn at least 10 metres below the surface to avoid shipping, developers said, and the zones would be off-limits to trawlers for safety reasons.
ScottishPower said tests in Norway proved the blades moved slowly enough for marine life to avoid them.
Scotland, which aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, has the best tidal resources in Europe and it has been calculated that at least a third of Scotland's energy demand could be met by tidal renewables.
The tidal farm sites would have a combined output of 60 megawatts, enough to power 40,000 homes in Scotland and Northern Ireland. If planning approval is granted, ScottishPower Renewables says the projects could be operational by 2011.
The company is also hoping to build a factory in the north-east of Scotland where all the turbines will be constructed, and the projects would be expected to bring hundreds of jobs.
Keith Anderson, the director of ScottishPower Renewables, said this was Scotland's chance to become the global leader in a new renewable energy industry.
He said Scotland has the best tidal resources in Europe, with the Pentland Firth alone containing enough energy to meet a third of Scotland's power requirements. "The rapid technological advance of tidal power has been startling and is now allowing us to progress plans for substantial projects delivering major environmental and economic benefits," he said.
"Tidal power is completely renewable, being driven by the gravity of the sun and moon, with no carbon dioxide emissions, plus the added benefit of being entirely predictable."
First Minister Alex Salmond, who will visit Caithness, near the potential site of the tidal farms, described the announcement as "significant". He said: "We have an estimated 25 per cent of Europe's tidal resource and 10 per cent of its wave potential. That is why this announcement is so significant."
Before it can be deployed, a £6 million prototype will have to be tested for about a year in Scottish waters, probably off Orkney.
Engineers rising to the challenge of harnessing tidal power
THE tidal farms will use a machine known as the Lànstrøm device, which was invented in Norway and has already gone through four years of successful testing.
Even though the devices seem likely to be the first to be used in a large-scale commercial tidal farm, many other machines are in development in what is set to become a very competitive market.
Marine Current Turbines, based in Bristol, installed a 300kw tidal turbine called Seaflow off Lynmouth, Devon, in 2003.
It's a two-bladed rotor connected to an electrical generator mounted on a single steel tower drilled into the seabed.
Irish firm OpenHydro Group has developed the Open-Centre Turbine, which has a single rotor. A single prototype turbine was installed at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney in 2006. In May 2008 it became the first tidal device to export power on to the UK grid.
The Engineering Business, based in Newcastle, is developing the Stingray tidal generator, which uses the flow of the tide over a hydroplane, similar to an aeroplane wing, to generate electricity. In 2002 the 180-tonne, 150kw machine was tested in the Yell Sound, Shetland.
SMD Hydrovision, based in Tyne and Wear, has developed the TidEL concept, which consists of a pair of contra-rotating 500kw turbines, mounted together on a single crossbeam.
The unit is buoyant and tethered to the seabed, allowing it freedom of movement. The turbines can automatically align themselves downstream of the tidal flow as it changes during the day.
IN NUMBERS
40 - Turbines that could be built in Scottish waters by 2011.
40,000 - Homes that could be powered by the three turbine farms.
80 - The percentage of the UK's potential tidal power in Scottish waters.
Oh, c’mon. There has to be some type of endangered sea creature that the communists can use to stop this nonsense.
And if tried in the US they will complain of the fish kills and how the squeaks confuse dolphins.
These projects seem to have some potential.
Several engineers that I know are working on a project in Maine. My only fear is that the environmentalists will come up with some reason to oppose it. They really don’t believe in alternative energy (fighting the building of transmission lines from solar fields in the desert and of course fighting the wind energery project in Mass). I am convinced their goal is to weaken us as a people and as a country.
Shouldn’t this be in current events?
I wish that they had pics of these underwater wind farms, so that everybody has a better idea of what’s being talked about.
Sounds like a great bit of tech, but in other news, Aeolius is very confused and Poseidon is pissed at his cousin's interloping.
The battery polution during tidal changes will offset any benefit of this project. That has been the problem with this idea for 30 years. Next.
Play on names, they are actually, http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5440176/description.html
I am not familar with this problem-please explain.
Are these the wind farm on land now but after gobble warming are below sea level?
Maybe his point is that, during tidal changes, the direction of the rotor may not be predictable.
Tidal energy is a form of mining, as it taps the rotational energy of the earth and the moon. The tides dissipate this energy naturally, at a very slow rate of course, but placing additional drag on the tidal movement of the oceans will increase this rate, even if only by a very small amount.
Doesn’t have to be, if the rotor is free to automatically swing in the current direction.
And the turbines are movable, to take advantage of changing current flows.
I always wondered about that. I mean thats gotta be putting out some suction or whatnot and will at best disturb sea life.
I always see birds flying into windmills in my mind as well haha. Mayve I am just whack!
NEato and all that.
BUt every one of these GREEN energy ieas contains the word (or words)
Could
Soon
might
and of course the evey popular
Government subsidy needed....
To be fair Nellis AFB (home of Las Vegas, a city of some size nearby) is solar powered (18MW) and at a rate 2.2C/KWH) LESS than what the locals pay - 9c KWH. IOW, about a third of the going rate, and no ‘carbon footprint...
The articles on that one started with “Today, the current flowed....” NO soons, maybes or subsidies.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellis_Solar_Power_Plant for pics etc.
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