Green energy from tides

The exploitation of tidal energy opens a great prospect, minimizing the emission of carbon dioxide causing the greenhouse effect.

Modeling a tidal power center.

Minesto, Sweden, has developed a device for harnessing energy from the oceans. It is a turbine-underwater kite with a top section of a kite, carrying a turbo-operated turbine underneath.

Company experts tested in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland this past summer. Kite, with a wingspan of 8 - 14 meters, carrying a turbine below. They are anchored by a cable at the bottom of the sea. The "fly" in the tidal stream, according to figure 8, to increase the flow rate through the turbine to 10 times. Rotating turbines will generate electricity.

The kerosene generator generates renewable energy because tidal currents are the first of a large commercial scale, four times more powerful than other tidal power generators. Kites suspended in seawater and turbine mouths are protected from passing.

Ander Jansson, managing director of Minesto, said: "The kite works in a flow rate of 1 to 2.5 m / sec, depending on the position and size of the kite, each turbine has a capacity of 150 to 800 kW, and operate in deep water 50-300m ".

Stephen Wyatt, a marine energy expert with the British government's low carbon economy, said equipment such as kites and tide-line turbines would extend Britain's tidal resources. %, meaning it can provide about 1% of Britain's total current electricity demand.

Wyatt says, assembling the equipment is one of the most difficult steps. Jansson said that the technology was commercially viable, which could compete with other electrical systems. He built and installed two turbines with a capacity of 1MW, which could cost between £ 1.8 million and £ 2 million, and hopefully these will be deployed on an economic scale.

Although it accounts for only 1% of UK electricity, that number is not small. That's enough for Newcastle, but it's mostly clean energy.

Scientists are very hopeful about wind turbines, tidal kites are great energy for the Earth.