Friday, September 05, 2008

Nothing new under the sun (or waves)


Interesting article in the Guardian today about a horizontal axis transverse tidal turbine: a cylindrical rotor is placed across the tidal stream, and rotates in the tidal stream. I've borrowed the Guardian's illustration here, and their article is here.

The article quotes all sorts of Dons claiming fantastic unit generation costs (£1.7 million/MW installed - better than offshore wind), and a typical THAWT (Transverse Horizontal Axis Water Turbine) comprising two units with a total capacity of 12 MW.

Apparently the technology has been tank tested, and plans are afoot for a half scale device to be sea-tested in 2009 but there's not a peep about where the money will come from.

And why have entitled this blog entry as I have? Because we know of at least one other horizontal transverse axis device out there, among the more than 60 companies we follow on the main Redfield website.

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