A European breakthrough in renewable clean energy in abundance may change the earth forever

It was a 5-year project to develop and test a commercially-sized marine current turbine. The turbine was installed in the summer of 2003 off Foreland Point, near Lynmouth on the North Devon coast of England, and has been successfully operated and tested sincethen.

The turbine is a 300 kW, horizontal-axis machine that resembles a 2-bladed wind turbine, but with the rotor underwater. The turbine is mounted on a steel pile fixed into a socket in the seabed, and the power train – the rotor, gearbox and generator - can be slid up and down the pile and out of the water for servicing.

The project has included identifying a site for the turbine and obtaining all the necessary Permissions to install it, including conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment into its effects on marine life and processes, the landscape, and other sea users.

The project was co-ordinated by the renewable energy consultancy, IT Power. The other Partners were Seacore, a marine construction company, ISET, a research organization attached to Kassel University, and Jahnel-Kesterman, a specialist gearbox manufacturer. Aparallel project funded by the UK Government Department of Trade and Industry, DTI, had IT Power as its co-ordinator and Seacore as a partner, but added Marine Current Turbines Ltd., Bendalls Engineering, and Corus as UK partners. This consortium developed the machine from an early concept stage to detailed designs, then manufactured or purchased the components, and assembled and tested the prototype. The installation was carried out by a jack-up barge that could stand on legs on the seabed, providing a stable platform for drilling and assembly. No underwater operations were required.

Early testing has confirmed much of the design philosophy, and the turbine has performed at least as well as predicted. New techniques have been developed to install the turbine in a deep, high current area, and much has been learnt about working in such environments. The project has increased understanding of the nature of tidal flows, and the behavior of a rotor in tidal currents. SEAFLOW lays the foundations for the development of a new industry, exploiting what is could be a sizeable renewable energy resource. The partners plan to follow SEAFLOW with further, larger prototypes, and to move to commercial production in the medium term. A dedicated company, Marine Current Turbines Ltd, has been set up to achieve this.

Source: India Daily Technology Team,
Nov. 27, 2005