New Tidal-Energy Testbed Launched In Devon

JaJ_D writes " According to the Beeb, Lynmonth in North Devon (in the south west of the UK) have just launched a new tidal energy generating system. The system is different to others by having the rotor blades fully under water and turning at about 20 rpm (so no harm to the fish). Each '...single 11 metre-long rotor blade will be capable of producing 300 kilowatts of electricity and will be a test-bed for further tidal turbines' Clean, relatively cheap and very little damage to the environment either by discharges or damage to the views. I wonder how many more will be made."

Comments

No harm to fish?!?

[isorox]

rotor blades fully under water and turning at about 20 rpm (so no harm to the fish).

Erm, 11m blades, spinning arround, mean the outside of the blades travel 3.14*2*11*20/60 metres per second, thats about 50mph. I wouldnt want to be hit by one of them!

Re:No harm to fish?!?

[mark2003]

It's not the speed of the balde that is important - rather the interval and the width of the blade. 20 RPM with two blades means a blade passes through any point every 1.5 seconds - it all depends if the fish can swim more than the width of the blade's cross-section in 1.5 seconds.

Er... sounds like a fish blender to me!

Re:I'm impressed

[lirkbald]

They have. California, at least. If you take the 10 east from Los Angeles, you'll see literally thousands of windmills through some of the mountain passes. I think my electric bills usually indicate that one or two percent of my power is coming from wind power.

The problem with both wind and tidal is you can't just toss them up anywhere- you need somewhere with steady, fairly strong winds, or unusually large tides. I don't know much about tidal, but I doubt florida is going to have much luck with wind power- it's dead flat, and the best places for wind power tend to be mountain passes, which 'funnel' in the wind.

More information.

[JaJ_D]

The beeb have released a Real audio file here. May be of interest

Jaj