The Tide Is Turning: Turbine Rides Underwater Currents Like a Kite

September 25, 2008

New technology would enable turbine tethered to the seabed to harvest energy

There is no market yet for turbines that turn the tides into a source of energy from deep beneath the sea. But that has not stopped mechanical engineers at the University of Strathclyde’s Energy Systems Research Unit (ESRU) in Scotland from developing one that will ride the tide while latched to the seabed by a cable—like a kite flying on a windy day.

The ESRU team’s goal: create a device that literally goes with the flow rather than resting on the sea bottom like an underwater windmill—a model already being developed by a handful of companies. The kite and cable model is designed to facilitate placing tidal turbines in deep water, where the stronger current has the potential for providing greater power but also makes it extremely difficult to plant a turbine in the seabed.

"The problem with regular turbines is the bigger they get, the harder they work, and the more likely the force of the water is to damage the turbine," says Andrew Grant, an ESRU mechanical engineer. "Our turbine can fly like a kite in the water." Instead of planting the base of a turbine in the seabed, researchers need only plant an anchor for the tether.

CONTRA-ROTATING MARINE TURBINE (CoRMaT): The University of Strathclyde’s Energy Systems Research Unit (ESRU) in Scotland is developing a dual-rotor turbine connected to the seabed by a cable that rides the tide like a kite on a windy day.
Courtesy of ESRU

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