Exceeding the Betz limit with tidal turbines

Ross Vennell

Renewable Energy, 2013, vol. 55, issue C, 277-285

Abstract: The Betz limit sets a theoretical upper limit for the power production by turbines expressed as a maximum power coefficient of 16/27. While power production by wind turbines falls short of the Betz limit, tidal turbines in a channel can theoretically have a power coefficient several times larger than 16/27. However, power extraction by turbines in large tidal farms also reduces the flow along the channel, limiting their maximum output. Despite this flow reduction, turbines in tidal farms can produce enough power to meet a stricter definition of what it means to exceed the Betz limit, one where the maximum power output of a turbine at the reduced flow exceeds the maximum output from a single Betz turbine operating in the unreduced flow. While having a power coefficient >16/27 is easily achieved by turbines in a channel, generating enough power to meet this stricter definition of exceedance is much more difficult. Whether turbines meet this stricter definition depends on their number, how they are arranged and tuned, and the dynamical balance of the channel. Arranging a tidal turbine farm so that the turbines within it exceed the stricter Betz limit would give tidal turbine farms an economic advantage over similarly sized wind farms. However, exceeding the stricter limit comes at a cost of both higher structural loads on the tidal turbines and the need to produce power from weaker flows. Farms in a channel loosely based on the Pentland Firth are used to discuss exceedance and structural loads.

Keywords: Tidal stream; Resource assessment; Tidal current power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014811200780X
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:55:y:2013:i:c:p:277-285

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2012.12.016

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 ().