Tidal Turbine To Light The Thames

The turbine under test has been developed by Hales Marine Energy near Eastbourne on the English south coast and is expected to be deployable in tidal seas as well as rivers. The design application of this turbine is to sit on a submergible tank that will sit on the sea bed and can be floated up to the surface when required. Significantly, the design is almost infinitely scalable: the unit under test is 1m diameter and produces about 1kW; 5m turbines suitable for inshore deployment would generate round 20kW; smaller units would be ideal for river use. With access to the test site being by small boat, Rod knew that his test regime had to be both simple and comprehensive.

The critical measurement is torque, as this indicates the power we can derive from the system. We had to be certain that we would get continuous measurements over an extended period of time, because we need to map power production against actual river flow. Also for this technology to succeed in the emerging green power market it must be capable of continuous and predictable energy production.