Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tidal Turbine Strangford Lough

The following post is information which could be seen as closely related to gardening; since plants produce their own food in a totally 'green way' by using the energy obtained from sunlight and minerals from water and organic matter.

What do you think of the world's largest tidal turbine which is located in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland? This device which is called a SeaGen turbine is a 1.2 megawatt turbine which will generate clean electricity for approximately 1ooo homes. According to Marine Current Turbines this is a prototype turbine which it hoped will be replicated on a large scale over the coming years.

Explore Marine Current Turbines website for information and pictures about the SeaGen turbine. On the 18th December 2008 SeaGen Tidal Energy System Reaches full power. Check out this animation of SeaGen which shows how the turbine actually works underwater.

Advantages of the SeaGen tidal turbine:
  • The world’s first commercial scale tidal turbine, SeaGen is more efficient, safer, easier to maintain and best suited to the challenging marine environment.
  • SeaGen is based on MCT’s experience with its predecessor, the 300kW Seaflow system installed off Lynmouth Devon in May 2003 and still thriving in open sea conditions. Experience with large scale technology in offshore operational conditions lies behind the design process that led to the development of SeaGen.
  • SeaGen is more efficient both in the amount of energy it can extract from the current and in cost. This is because it uses a pair of pitch-controlled axial flow rotors, which for good reason are the technology of choice in the closely analogous low-head hydro and wind generator industries.
  • What applied in the fields of hydro and wind power seems unlikely to be significantly different in the field of water current kinetic energy conversion because similar laws of physics apply.
  • The rotor design also provides the capability for controlling a large power system as the rotor blades may be pitched into a neutral position to stop the turbine gently even at full flow – an essential requirement for any power generation system; by comparison fixed pitch turbines require a powerful brake to stop them and if the brake fails they cannot be stopped.
  • SeaGen’s rotor blades can be pitched to limit the power to a pre-chosen “rated power” at times when high velocities are experienced; this greatly reduces the loads on the turbine structure, the rotor blades and the power take-off – and reduced and controlled loads translate into reduced costs and safer and more reliable operation.
  • The most difficult engineering problems are the high structural loads to be dealt with and in effect solving the question of “how do you nail it to the floor?” The weakest material to which the turbine is attached is the seabed itself, even if it is rock, so the foundations need to be sized so as not to overstress the seabed and cause the turbine to move or break loose. In order to attach the turbine piles were drilled deep into the bedrock of the seabed.

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posted by Thomas @ 7:49 pm

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