Turbines for modular tidal current energy converters

Nicholas Kaufmann, Thomas Carolus and Ralf Starzmann

Renewable Energy, 2019, vol. 142, issue C, 451-460

Abstract: The vast potential of ocean energies is of increasing interest. Harnessing marine currents driven by the tidal cycle have triggered the development of various power conversion systems. However, the comparably high levelized cost of electricity is still the main hindrance for a faster market penetration. The paper describes a novel strategy to decrease the cost: A number of small prefabricated turbines of low complexity form an arbitrary scalable array of turbines; a modular design of the key unit “turbine” allows an easy adaption to the tidal current velocity profile at a particular site; hydraulically optimized turbine blades ensure maximum annual energy production and minimum immersion depth. Results of the design efforts are a 4 m and a 6.3 m diameter horizontal axis free flow turbine with an identical drive train for a rated electrical power of 70 kW. Four turbines have been tested on a 30 m × 26 m trimaran placed for several months near the Falls of Lora in Scotland. The power yield fully confirmed the prediction. As an example, the annual electric energy production from such a turbine, placed in the Minas Passage area of the Bay of Fundy in Canada - an ideal site of harnessing tidal currents, is forecasted as 230 MWh.

Keywords: Tidal energy; Cost-effective turbine design; Fixed-pitch tidal current turbines; Rotor blade optimization; Multi-objective optimization; Full-scale testing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148119306044
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:142:y:2019:i:c:p:451-460

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.04.120

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().