Thursday 29 June 2017

Slow-water tidal tech gets moving with £200k project

The University of South Wales (USW) is leading a £200,000 research project into slow-water tidal energy technologies.

The project, which has received a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will be led by Dr Daphne O’Doherty, Head of Engineering at USW.

In collaboration with experts at universities in Cardiff, Southampton and Strathclyde, researchers will investigate the feasibility of extracting meaningful amounts of energy from low velocity tidal flows, an area which they say has largely unexplored potential.

Dr O'Doherty said: "There are many parts of the world, including large areas of the UK, where the waters around the coast doesn’t flow as quickly and so haven’t been the subject of a great deal of research.

"What this project will look at is whether a slower tidal flow, under two metres per second, will offer the conditions that are suitable for energy generation."

USW and Cardiff University will handle the numerical modelling involved, Strathclyde University will look into blade design and Southampton University will work on part of the turbine system design.

All four partners will work together to determine the levelised cost of energy for the planned turbine.