cleantechnica.com — SeaGen, the world?s first commercial scale tidal stream turbine, has for the first time generated at its maximum capacity of 1.2MW. Now that SeaGen has reached full power it will move towards full-operating mode up to 22 hours a day, with regular inspections and performance testing undertaken as part of the project?s development program.
Dec 18, 2008 View in Crawl 4
bangaarangDec 19, 2008
Truly a next gen energy source, I'm impressed.
hwoodDec 19, 2008
At some point, wouldn't this effect the ocean currents?
amadoucolchisDec 19, 2008
France has been producing commercial levels of electricity (240MW) from its Rance tidal barrage for over 40 years (actually since 1966). And 240MW is 200 times the Strangford Lough SeaGen turbine's power..... Congratulations to SeaGen, but precisely what record has been shattered?
libertyknightDec 19, 2008
oh, very good stuff. thanks!
jphrDec 19, 2008
Clearly a demo installation with a research component requires a superstructure facilitating measurement equipment for monitoring an evaluation. Having a crane it faciltates quick repair and replacement. A full scale commercial installation will most probably do without that all.
froman118Dec 19, 2008
240MW is the peak, the Wiki on Rance says it averages 68MW with 24 turbines spanning the entire river much like a regular dam. This turbine looks to be completely standalone and wouldn't require building an entire dam to house them. So per turbine the Rance is generating closer to 2.4 times the electricity as this single turbine, not 200 times.
jmorrison2103Dec 23, 2008
A similar large metro that could benefit from this technology is Miami. The straits of Florida provide an incredible ammount of constant wave current, and it is conveniently located to the largest power consuming metro in the 4th most populous state. Localized solution like these will be the answer. The problem with wind, and to some degrees solar, is the innability to put large scale energy production close to where their is large scale energy consumption.Also, the navy cammo patterns that make ships blend into the surrounding water could easily be applied to these turbines to make them less of an eyesore. But to me, the pictures of the massive wind turbines off the cost of Norway are a sight worth looking at, as any marvel of modern engineering, and I have no idea why you wouldnt want to have it as a landscape feature.