SeaGen

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The tidal power plant Strangford (also called short SeaGen ) is a tidal power plant of the type tidal power plant (ie without dam ) in the Strait of Strangford, County Down, Northern Ireland.

Through this strait, which connects the Strangford Lough to the Irish Sea, flowing with every tide, about 18,000 cubic meters of water, and the flow reaches a steady speed of more than 5 knots ( 2.4 m / s). From this SeaGen generated with two axial turbines a capacity of about 1.2 megawatts, making it the currently ( mid-2009 ) located in commercial operation tidal power plant in the world 's most powerful.

Technology

The main technical data of the plant:

  • The two rotors are closely modeled on modern wind turbines. Everyone has a diameter of 16 m, a weight of 27 tonnes and a maximum electrical output of 600 kW. The wings are in angle adjustable so that they can be adapted to the flow. The rotors rotate at a nominal speed of 14.3 revolutions per minute. About a gear the speed for the generator is translated to 1000 revolutions per minute.
  • The cross-piece ( cross- bar), at which the two rotors are fixed to a length of 29 m and including rotors having a weight of 150 tons. The traverse to the rotors can be raised for maintenance purposes by means of a hydraulic system from the water.
  • The standing in the water tower has a height of 40.7 m above the ground and a diameter of 3 m. The water at this point - depending on the tide - a depth of 24 to 28.3 m ( tidal range 4.3 m ). The flow rate is an average of 3.7 m / s ( 7.2 knots ) and a maximum at 4.8 m / s ( 9.3 knots ).

Location on the Strait of Strangford ( by red asterisk marks )

History

SeaGen is a development of the company Marine Current Turbines ( MCT) from Bristol. The system is based on the previous model Seaflow, a pilot plant with 300 kW power and only one rotor, which was installed by MCT in May 2003 off the coast of North Devon in southwest England. Previously, in 1994, was a small pilot plant with 15 kW in Loch Linnhe, tested on the west coast of Scotland.

SeaGen was manufactured and assembled by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. From here, the plant was transported to Strangford, where the facility was built in April 2008. In July 2008, the first stream was fed into the grid. When re-starting a rotor was by a control error overloaded and damaged, so that the plant initially could only work at half power. By December 2008, the damage was repaired and SeaGen delivers full power since then and is in regular commercial operation.

Rotors prior to installation on land

Construction of the plant (March 2008)

Angle of attack
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