Friday, April 11, 2008

World's Largest Tidal Generator in Ireland

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Artist Impression of the Giant Sea Twin Turbine


World's Largest
Tidal Generator
Installed in Ireland


Renewable energy company "Marine Current Turbines", have successfully completed the first installation phase of a 1.2Mega Watt under water generator called "SeaGen" in Strangford Lough Narrows.

The hefty 1000 tonne structure was safely lowered onto the seabed in the early hours of Wednesday morning 2nd of April. SeaGen’s location is roughly 1km south of the ferry route between Strangford and Portaferry, approximately 400m from the shoreline.

When fully up-and-running, sometime in the summer, the 16m diameter twin rotors will operate for up to 18-20 hours per day to generate enough green electricity to supply 1000 homes. This is four times greater than any other tidal stream project has produced in the world so far.


Hope the dolphins keep away from those blades!!


Marine Current Turbines Ltd was established in 2000 and is based in Bristol, England. SeaFlow was the world’s first off-shore tidal stream generator which was installed in 2003 off the north Devon coast. Now another first is SeaGen, the world’s largest grid-connected tidal stream system.

www.marineturbines.com


Good luck to this brave experimental effort!!


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1 comment:

Unknown said...

I have a place near the ocean that has a tidal range of almost 3 meters normally. This is an idea that I'm now exploring. I wonder if you could instead use some large culverts and place a hole near the bottom and put an impeller in it. As the water rose or fell, it would power the impeller. I'm a diver, fabricator and engineer, this may be the new upcoming project...