Marine Tidal Current Electric Power Generation Technology: State of the Art and Current Status

Abstract

Abstract-The potential of electric power generation from marine tidal currents is enormous. Tidal currents are being recognized as a resource to be exploited for the sustainable generation of electrical power. The high load factors resulting from the fluid properties and the predictable resource characteristics make marine currents particularly attractive for power generation and advantageous when compared to other renewable energies. Moreover, international treaties related to climate control have triggered resurgence in development of renewable ocean energy technology. Therefore, several demonstration projects in tidal power are scheduled to capture the tidal generated coastal currents. Regarding this emerging and promising area of research, this paper reviews marine tidal power fundamental concepts and main projects around the world. It also report issues regarding electrical generator topologies associated to tidal turbines. Moreover, attempts are made to highlight future issues so as to index some emerging technologies mainly according to relevant works that have been carried out on wind turbines and on ship propellers.Index Terms-Tidal current, marine technology, electric power generation, energy converter systems, state of the art.

Generator Systems for Marine Current Turbine Applications: A Comparative Study

“…For the first criterion, the annual produced power was calculated for the two generator systems based on tidal current data from the Raz de Sein (Brittany, France), using a 10-m diameter and 100-kW turbine. These power ratings correspond to the major prototypes that have been recently tested [1]. Fig.…”

“…The total kinetic power in a marine current turbine has a similar dependence to that of a wind turbine and is governed by [5] (1) However, an MCT can only harness a fraction of this power due to losses, and (1) is modified as follows: (2) For MCTs, is estimated to be in the range 0.35-0.5 [1]. Thus, the extracted power depends mainly on the tidal velocities and the turbine sizes (Fig.…”

“…It is then obvious that some wind electric generator topologies could be used for marine turbines [1]. Table I briefly summarizes the pros and cons of the major generator topologies.…”

“…C ONSIDERING the main projects for harnessing tidal energy, it can be noticed that many technological solutions have been proposed and tested to find the optimal ones [1]. Therefore, it is necessary to develop simulation environments to estimate marine current turbine global behavior and potential energy capture from the various sites.…”

A review of energy storage technologies for marine current energy systems

“…However these well known technologies are not always adapted to the particularly severe underwater maritime environment constraint. This is why various original horizontal axis and vertical axis marine current turbines have been developed around the world [2].…”