The world’s first turbine to generate commercial amounts of electricity from tidal energy is being installed in Strangford Lough today.
The SeaGen turbine which can generate up to 1.2MW (enough to power approx 1,000 homes) was developed by Marine Current Turbines and works much like submerged windmills, but driven by flowing water rather than air. These turbines can be installed in the sea at places with high tidal current velocities, or in places with fast enough continuous ocean currents, to extract energy from these huge volumes of flowing water.
SeaGen consists of twin axial flow rotors of 20m in diameter, each driving a generator via a gearbox much like a hydro-electric turbine or a wind turbine. These turbines have a patented feature by which the rotor blades can be pitched through 180 degrees in order to allow them to operate in bi-direction flows – that is on both the ebb and the flood tides. The twin power units of each system are mounted on wing-like extensions either side of a tubular steel monopile some 3m in diameter and the complete wing with its power units can be raised above sealevel to permit safe and reliable maintenance.
Tidal power is very environmentally friendly in that it generates no noise, no emissions and has a minimal visual impact as the rotors are underwater.
One of the investors in this project is Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board (the former incumbent electricity co.) who are investing £3m in the project and more importantly have given a commitment to buy all the electricity generated for the first five years.
The ESB will therefore be one of the first electricity companies in the world providing tidal energy to its customers.
3 Comments
Great news all round. A few more projects like this around the country and we might just start taking pride in our progressive environmentalism. It could become a national trait. Here’s hoping.
Looks interesting but what is the impact on marine life?
Good question Paul.
The impact should be minimal because of the speed at which the turbines turn (slowly!).
However, just to be sure a team from St. Andrew’s University are monitoring it over a three year period and will report their findings back.
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