Donate Bitcoin

Donate Paypal


PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

Run-of-Current Turbines: Multi-role Energy Source

Discussions of conventional and alternative energy production technologies.

Run-of-Current Turbines: Multi-role Energy Source

Unread postby backstop » Fri 29 Oct 2004, 10:08:39

Bent Strider wrote :

I don't know if I got this from a "Popular Science" or Mechanics article.
But I remember reading something up on a viable replacement for monster dams like the Hoover Dam.
These devices are just wind turbines. Except for the fact they could be placed under water.
When under water, the passing water current turns the fan blades.
As long as the river or lake doesn't run dry, you have a power source that could go on for practically forever.
Just put a group of these in a certain area of the river you plan to use.
Place a sort of underwater fence around it to keep wildlife out.
Yet also keep the fence felxible enough for boats to skim right over the top of the field.




savethehumans wrote :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right now, the UK is investing in developing wave and tidal power. It is good to get such an infrastructure going NOW...we might not have the energy available to build one later!

The oceans are pretty powerful forces--it'll be interesting to see how the UK's efforts work out...very SOON, I hope!




backstop wrote :
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BentStrider - The Run-of-Current Turbine is certainly feasible and has a record of R&D going back at least to the 1970s.

Two main a designs are being advanced, with the UK setting devices off its SW coast to harness strong tidal currents. These follow the original design philosophy of minimizing structure costs by having free-standing 'vertical axis' turbines set on the sea-bed.

I gather (from New Scientis last year) that a US version ignores that philosophy and aims to build massive underwater concrete fences (off Hawaii ?) with gaps housing turbines, in order the raise the speed of the current flowing past them. Given that sea currents are notoriously dicey to bugger about with, (they can easily shift) I guess this is probably guilding the lily.

The Torque output from Reading Univ research in the '70s was 1.0HP per m.sq. swept by the turbine foils on a 3knot current (on the River Thames). Power output changes with the square of the speed of the current, thus a square metre swept in a 6knot current will give 4HP of torque.

The potential of this option is thus very localised as an urban-scale power source - only a few places around the world have sufficient tidal currents to be worth harnessing, but some of those (such as off Nova Scotia) are really massive.

The widespread application of this option is more likely to be its use for water-pumping for irrigation from slow flowing rivers, or for local power or torque from fast steep rivers, for which it has huge potential. One such ran for irrigation for several years on the Nile before being lost in local warfare in the '80s.

I guess the UK govt.'s DTI website will give some news about the RoC turbines now being developed if you'ld like to learn more about them.

regards,

Backstop


PS. These posts were initiated by BentStrider and are shifted to a new thread to allow new readers to find relevant info on the subject from the thread title.
backstop
Heavy Crude
Heavy Crude
 
Posts: 1463
Joined: Tue 24 Aug 2004, 03:00:00
Location: Varies

Return to Energy Technology

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 60 guests