Underwater turbine rides the tide

摘要

A Scottish company's tidal turbine is a few degrees away from commercial deployment. Weighing 100 tons and measuring 33 meters, a 250-kW prototype reached a peak power export of 273 kW during a recent trial. Bigger tests are on the horizon. Essentially, the turbine is a floating cylindrical tube that supports dual horizontal axis rotors. The rotors extract kinetic energy from the tidal flow, which is converted to electricity and transmitted to shore.