SeaGen - Sea Generation Tidal Turbine

[olivertirreg]

and a Windturbine on the top

[Aadam815]

Energie budoucnosti!!!

[davetileguy]

Pure impractical fantasy

[MrBadham]

Do they put any in large rivers like the St. Lawrence, or the Nile, or are they just in Tidal areas?

[2ridetilldeath2]

@MrBadham there are big river Power Plant´s but these are Tidal power plant´s

and @davetileguy no fantasy Some people built a working prototype in Florida



[chummy93]

@2ridetilldeath2 who needs a prototype. there is one in fully working order and generating power in the UK somewhere

[Flamorgan]

@chummy93 It is fully operational at Portaferry in Strangford Lough in Ireland.

[2ridetilldeath2]

@MrBadham  river power plant Donau for example

[steeltoto]

so can these types of turbines be used to collect energy from WAVES AND TIDES instead of just WAVES?

[jib1000]

Why are there bubbles on the blades underwater? Is it shooting gas into the water?

[alfmep]

@jib1000 i guess the bubbles are supposed to be cavitation effects at the tips of the turbine blades due to their high relative speed.

@UncleKennybobs: the issue for the underwater turbines is the extreme amount of abrasion due to particles in the water (ive seen an engineer giving a talk about his company that build such turbines - he had some pics where you could see chains the size of forearms reduced to 1 inch thickness after 2 years) this renders the turbines very expansive to maintain

[jib1000]

@alfmep How is that possible? Aren't the turbines powered by the water?

[alfmep]

@jib1000 thats correct the blades are powered by the water- they spin the blades. But at the tip of the blade the velocity of the water is very high - in accordance to Bernoulli this means the pressure is lower than in the slower moving fluid around the blade and can drop below the evaporation point - that is at the tip of the blades water evaporates forming bubbles. Check out wikipedia (Cavitation) they have a nice picture of the effect in action cheers!

[jib1000]

@alfmep I'm afraid you're wrong there.

[UncleKennybobs]

I've never understood why we have offshore wind farms, tidal turbines, and yet no one seems to have had the idea to put the two together. Yes, I am aware that a stronger structure would be needed, but the space is already taken up so it may as well be used efficiently.

They could also be used to offer wireless or mobile network access, it's not a push on the imagination to make one structure multitask.

[emeraldgal01]

Hey, i am doing a reaserch project on tidal power and i am looking at SeaGen. Ive looked up alot of info on it and it says it is a tidal steam system. What part of it uses the steam, and how does it collect it ? Also, based on the video, is SeaGen any different to traditional tidal power generators? PLEASE HELP.. Im really confused..?

Thanks :)

[magicalmouse2008]

Tidal STREAM system not steam.

[hammerhiker]

Yea or some nut job will sue you for killing a fish with the blades...

[lejink]

i had this idea when i was out fishing near here.. theres a large island close to the mainland with 2 narrow channels at each end. the huge amount of water must funnel through these channels during tide change. it creates really big tidal vortexes, with that kind of water speed i thought i was so smart thinking of putting a wind generator in the water, would make alot of torque. but then i foundout it had been thought of already :( *sigh*

[Draxius]

Don't you just hate it when that happens. I thought of a way to create artificial sight by using part or removing the eye completely and adding prosthetic to the eye as long as the nerve in the back of the eye is functioning properly.

[enicao]

it happens to me so often.

I have the idea that will "save" the world and make me rich, and I do a bit of research on internet and I nearly always find someone who already had my idea.

I hate it.

2 questions:

- why wind turbines have 3 blades and sea current turbines have 2? (I thought 3 blades make the rotor more stable)

- your system doesn't look like it can turn to face the current, wouldn't it be better if it did?

[lejink]

well, it wouldnt be a wind turbine.. but the same idea.

just with much wider, pitching blades.

make them very large.. i was looking at my fan yesterday, it was quite hot. the blades on it are so large theres almost no gap between them to see straight through. that would almost be ideal in my mind.. the density of water would allow for gearing of the system to have the generator spinning at a much higher rpm.

[lejink]

major issues i could think against the idea were- sea life growing on the blades would majorly affect the efficiency. also, im not sure if water flow is the same on the bottom as the speeds i could see at the surface have an idea for a variable transmission, which would work with this turbine.

i dont have any multi million dollar bank accounts backing me.. its depressing to know if i have a great idea and develop it. some big company will just modify it slightly n ill be left in the dust.

[ngbkaki]

Hi, I am currently working for a private institute involved in tidal energy in the Pentland Firth, Scotland. Sea curent turbines have 2 blades because water density is 832 times higher than air. Then, the water velocity needed to produce the same amount of power is much lower. The water leads to torque much higher : that's why tide turbines don't need three blades like wind turbines.

[whotookmynickkokokai]

Idea worth nothing without implementation.

[lejink]

@whotookmynickkokokai oh i agree, iv since thought of an idea for using wave energy. an old employer of mine who is an engineer is helping me throw ideas around for perfecting it.

likely nothing will come of it, but its fun to try!