Tidal Power has always been a very promising means of renewable power from quite a while now, held back only by technological barriers. Now, Marine Current Turbines have seen various engineering challenges through and have finally managed to put together a Tidal turbine that is capable of generating 1.2 megawatts of power. For this, Marine Current’s team worked six weeks to secure the huge Tidal Turbine to the seabed and connect it to Northern Ireland’s grid. To give you a perspective of how much power that really is, 1.2 megawatts of power can power upto 1000 homes.
Though this power is clean and green, the twin rotor turbine with a sixteen meter diameter weighs a mammoth thousand tonnes. So that makes it one tonne of equipment to generate power for one home, which looks a little uneconomical. Until technology develops further to make Tidal turbines smaller and more efficient, I don’t see tidal power replacing conventional sources of power anytime too soon. That said, Marine Current Turbines’ initiative to bring Tidal Power to the mainstream definitely deserves to be lauded.
Via: ImpactLab
