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Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland’s coast

By | August 13, 2010, 4:00 AM PDT

The latest, and possibly largest, marine power turbine debuted Wednesday on its way to the coast of Scotland’s Orkney islands.

In this corner of the world, the cold, rough-and-tumble North Sea takes few prisoners. But weighing in at 130 tons and standing at 73 feet tall, will also be the AK1000.

Designed to withstand the harsh open ocean as it harnesses the energy of its tides, the AK1000 is said to be big, slow and dependable. Atlantis describe their creation to the BBC as “simple and robust.” They say at a water velocity of about 9 feet per second, the device’s almost 60-foot-diameter rotor can predictably generate 1 megawatt of *power. (*edit)

Later this summer at the European Marine Energy Centre, Atlantis will install the turbine into the seabed. As the tides go in and out, the power produced will go to the local Orkney grid, where it could supply enough electricity for 1,000 homes.

Atlantis CEO Timothy Cornelius says in a statement:

Today is not just about our technology, it is about the emergence of tidal power as a viable asset class that will require the development of local supply chains employing local people to deliver sustainable energy to the local grid. The AK1000 takes the industry one step closer to commercial scale tidal power projects.

If we receive the same support from all levels of government that the oil & gas industry received to make the North Sea the success that it is, then the future is very bright for marine power and even brighter for Scotland.

Turning at 6 to 8 revolutions a minute, the rotor blades pose little threat to the marine environment and its wildlife, says the company.

Images: Atlantis Resources Corporation
Via: BBC

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Melissa Mahony

About Melissa Mahony

Melissa Mahony was a contributing editor for SmartPlanet from 2010 to 2011.

Melissa Mahony

Melissa Mahony

Contributing Editor, Energy

Melissa Mahony has written for Scientific American Mind, Audubon Magazine, Plenty Magazine and LiveScience. Formerly, she was an editor at Wildlife Conservation magazine. She holds degrees from Boston College and New York University's Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. She is based in New York.

Follow her on Twitter.

Melissa Mahony

Melissa Mahony

Melissa does not have financial holdings that would influence how or what she covers. She currently works for the Wildlife Conservation Society as an editor. Should Melissa cover a topic in which the WCS is involved, she will disclose this fact in her writing.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
Melissa Mahony claims to be "Intelligent Energy" but doesn't even know what energy is.

"1 megawatt of energy."
Sorry, 1 megawatt is power, not energy.

So "Unintelligent Energy"

I was going to let this pass until I saw the "Intelligent Energy" claim. The irony was too much for me.
Posted by JohnCBriggs
13th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
Good one John C.
But in this case Melissa is not too wrong, at least she is referring to a rate of generation and not, as journalists often do, to a quantity of energy and still calling it megawatts.
Posted by Greenbau
13th Aug 2010
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I think harnessing tidal energy is great.
It's efficient. It's cost effective.

All I am waiting for is some green nut to figure out that by putting
these things in place, that we're altering tidal flows and the earth's
rotation, and a list of awful global consequences.
Posted by JohnMcGrew@...
13th Aug 2010
0 Votes
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
Actually, Energy does have a value. If the 1000 homes use the power generated by the AK1000 then they will have consumed 1 megawatt of energy. If you want to refer to the power delivered by the AK1000 then you will need to put a time measurement with it. And, since Power = Energy/Time, Energy must have a value.

There is definitely a difference between the two terms but I think the article delivered the intended message without confusion.
Posted by moorejf@...
13th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
@moorejf

Just to be clear, let's use my Solar Panels as an example.

3000 Watts of Power
14 KiloWatt-hours (KWH) of Energy per day.

I don't mean to pick on Ms. Mahony, but if she is going to cover this beat, she should use the terms correctly.

Unfortunately a Google search shows almost equal use of "Megawatts of Power" and "Megawatts of Energy".
Posted by JohnCBriggs
13th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
Alas, I am human. The wording blunder has been corrected.

Melissa
Posted by Melissa Mahony
13th Aug 2010
0 Votes
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
Unless you add in time into any power equation (or article), what is being delivered could sound really impressive but of little consquence. If it generated a megawatt of power per hour that is vastly different than a megawatt of power per day; and the number of homes that can load up and consume this energy load is also a magnitude different. And Ms Mahony does not state what the power being generate time scale is but it is implied via the twice daily tidal forces as being 1 megawatt per day.

What is not stated is what electrical system picks up the 1000 homes load when the current is NOT moving during the twice daily slack tide hour.
Posted by TAPhilo
13th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
@TAPhilo,
Thank you for proving that not only Ms. Mahony gets confused about power vs. energy.

Let me explain how this works in general. Assume that you have a conventional 1 megawatt power plant. If it is turned on, it will produce

1 MW x 24 hours = 24 MW-h/day (Megawatt hours per day)

24 MW-h is energy and what the power company charges you for. This is 24,000 KW-H. A typical American home uses 30 KWH/day. This amounts to 800 American homes. Europeans use much less electricity so perhaps as many as 1600 European homes.

That was a conventional power plant. Now let's talk about renewables.

Renewables introduce the idea of "capacity factor" to account for the fact that they do not run at full power all the time. To keep things simple, let's assume a 20% capacity factor. So now our 1MW power plant only supplies 0.2 MW. So we have

0..2 MW x 24 hours = 4.8 MW-h/day

or enough for 160 American homes.

So note the units here "megawatt-hours per day" are the energy produced and "megawatts" is the power. It makes no sense to talk of "megawatts per day."
Posted by JohnCBriggs
13th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
I can imagine the bases becoming coral reefs off
of S. FL in the gulf stream.
Semantics and cow-farts contribute to global warming.
Posted by zeprider1
13th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
These stories like this on Smart Planet are very light weight. If they were swimming pools there would not be enough depth to drown in. You could not seriously take these stories seriously except to know that something happened somewhere. Details correct? Forget it. lol
Posted by bd1235
14th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
Melissa: A lass and human too? With such attributes no apology necessary!
Posted by Ian Orlebar
14th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
I don?t see any cost figures; what does one of these things cost; is it cost effective? Looks like this will be pretty expensive for 1000 homes; $1000 per home would only bring in a million; I'd guess getting this in place will cost many millions? This must be more of a feasibility study than a practical implementation of green power? Harnessing "nature's" energy is a very appealing idea, although certainly not new. When costs (practicality) is considered, I think a much larger scale implementation is usually required, is it not?
Posted by GarryGR
14th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
John C seems to know what he's talking about. I just wish he
wasn't so pompous about it.....

Floyd
Posted by TheRealFloyd
14th Aug 2010
0 Votes
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Thanks for the article Melissa!
It was very interesting to someone like me who didn't even know these kind of things existed. I was just out boating the other day watching how fast the tide was coming in and wondering if someone would ever think about harnessing the incredible power of the tides. It's a shame their are so many people who have nothing better to do than find faults with everything they read.
Posted by leo8888
24th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
The power companies have all developed pricing structures so that any new or competing alternative power/energy alternatives remain non economic in that service area.... only when the big power companies see an advantage to be received from subsidized construction/operations these projects/ideas get built.... until oil/nat gas/coal/nuclear/hydro costs rise.... alternatives will always be on the "back burner" so to speak
Posted by Curious in the Midwest
24th Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
That looks awsome. Thanks for the informitive post. I hope the fishes don't get sliced in half or anything though. I think the best way for folks to go is Personal Power Generation, through windmills, solar, geo and mainly conservation. If we wait on the giant power generators to 'do the right thing' we'll be waiting for ever. Think of it, the greener they go the less money they make and that's why they are in business.
Posted by pThomas20
31st Aug 2010
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RE: Giant tidal turbine hits Scotland's coast
Very interesting article but the errors do disrupt the reading flow.
Do you have any openings for proofreaders? I've read a number of articles from all three areas on this site and they are peppered with gotcha's. The banter in the comments confirms that writing of this caliber deserves to be held to a higher standard.
Posted by Lia2
22nd Mar 2011
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