What Can Tidal Energy Do?: Hydropower: Eco20/20

What Can Tidal Energy Do?

In the recent years, there have been several implementations in the area of tidal turbines. Along New York's East River, there are already six electricity generators in place. Each turbine converts energy into thirty-five megawatts of electricity. Verdant, the creators of the single rotor, tri-propeller turbines, is hoping to install a farm consisting of at least one hundred more of these turbines in the near future.

Another tidal turbine has been placed at Orkney, in Scotland. The AK1000 is said to achieve approximately one megawatt of electricity, converted from a tidal water velocity of a little over two and a half meters per second. This is assumed to be enough to power over a thousand homes. In 2013, electric output is hoped to be boosted to roughly one hundred and fifty megawatts. If this is successful, in 2020, electric output is hoped to be boosted yet again, this time to roughly seven hundred megawatts. These turbines will all be similarly fashioned, with dual rotors, each equipped with three propellers.

Severn Tidal Barrages is ready to begin implementation of two hundred and fourteen tidal turbines, each producing an output of electricity equaling two gigawatts on average, and eight point six gigawatts during peak tide flow. This dam style barrage already in effect stretch from the English coast to the coast of Wales.

The OpenHydro turbine is located in Minas Passage in Nova Scotia, Canada. This turbine produces one megawatt of electricity. This is one of the few advertised fan-style turbines in existence.

The Kvalsund in Finnmark, Norway, is home to the HS300. This turbine produces three hundred kilowatts of electricity. It is a more commonly used single rotor turbine with three propellers.

The HS1000 is hoped to be placed in the Orkney Isles in the summer of 2011 and is expected to produce one megawatt of electricity. The HS1000 will be designed similar to the HS300, with a single rotor equipped with three propellers.

A large turbine that is to be placed in the Sound of Islay, in Scotland, is expected to produce ten megawatts of electricity. These ten anticipated turbines will also consist of a single rotor equipped with three propellers.

Many problems are still coming into the light with tidal turbines, and research and development are working on finding solutions. One such problem is the fact that propellers can be broken off over periods of unusually high current or tidal velocity. Another issue that is being researched is the growth of barnacles on the propellers that move with lower speed. An answer to most of these questions is being answered by research and development teams at Minesto UK Ltd. The company is researching kite turbines, which resemble satellites. These kite turbines can generate more electricity from lower velocity waters by using rudders to steer them in figure eights, creating water turbulence. Minesto UK Ltd hopes to have enough of these kite turbines installed by 2020 to provide five hundred and thirty gigawatts per hour per year.