A tidal turbine, built and tested in Scotland, has been installed in waters off Naru Island, part of Japan’s Goto Island chain. Simec Atlantis Energy said its pilot turbine had generated 10 megawatt-hours in its first 10 days of operation.
The AR500 turbine was put together at a facility in Scotland before being shipped to Japan. According to SAE, the overall project involves the leasing of tidal generation equipment as well as the provision of offshore construction services to Japanese company Kyuden Mirai Energy.
SAE’s CEO, Graham Reid, described the installation as a “huge milestone for the deployment of clean, renewable energy from tidal stream and we hope it will be the first of many tidal turbines installed in Japan.”
42 kw
Leaving aside bigger grid applications, these could certainly be a problem solver in many isolated locales with communities needing a fully local utility.
Combined with pumped hydro*, a complete system. I can think of a dozen islands off the top of my head with the necessary tidal/topographic/population combinations.
*the round trip efficiency of which is quite astounding, better than 80%.
How well will they generate when fouled with gill netting?
And bio-fouling, Willy.
There was a project that ran here in the Pacific NW. Now I’m curious to see how that turned out, in terms of critters growing on the equipment.
Certainly a more challenging environment that for wind turbines, all things considered.
With Doug Bostrom. I finured to marine growth the blades may have been treated with the anti-fouling paint (propspeed) of (youtube channel) Sailing Zatarra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ2L_ezyxuA