Tidal & Wave Energy

By: Engr. Farhan Hanif

 What Causes Tides?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/what-causes-the-tides.html
 What causes tides?

The gravitational pull of the sun and the moon

causes bulges on Earth that move as we
rotate
Gravitational pull
Bulge
of Earth

Sun Moon

Earth
3
 What causes tides?

The tide rises when coastline enters the bulge

and falls when it rotates out

High tide

4
 Different types of tide

Sun Moon

Earth

Spring tides occur when the sun and moon are in a

straight line

The tidal range is typically highest during spring tides 5

 Different types of tide

Earth
Neap tides occur when
the sun and moon form a
right angle with Earth

Low tides are typically

higher and high tides are
Sun lower
Moon
Why is the moons pull
greater than the suns?
6
high tide

low tide
 History of Tidal
Tidal energy is one of the oldest forms of energy used by humans
Dating back to 787 A.D., tide mills were constructed, consisting of a
storage pond and a sluice (gate that controls water flow).
During the incoming tide (flood), the sluice would open to allow rising
waters to fill the storage pond
During the outgoing tide (ebb), the stored water would be released
over a waterwheel

In the early 1960s, the first commercial scale tidal power plant was built
in St. Malo, France, consisting of twenty four 10MW turbines.
 Tidal Barrages
The oceans tides can be used to accumulate potential energy, which can
be converted to mechanical energy by turning a turbine in a manner quite
similar to hydropower.

As the tides rise and fall daily, basins along the shoreline naturally fill and
empty. A complete tidal cycle takes 12.5 hours, so there are two high tides
and two low tides a day.

Dam-like structures called barrages can be built across the mouths of

natural tidal basins with sluice gates. Water can be allowed to rise on one
side of the sluice until enough of a hydraulic head is built up to power a
turbine.

The turbines are designed to work in either direction to maximize the

utilization of the changing tide.
Tidal Barrages
 Rance River Tidal Power Station

The first commercial tidal

power plant in the world is
the La Rance Tidal Barrage
in France built in 1967.

The average tidal range is

28 ft, with a max of 44 ft.
The barrage extends 2500
ft across.

Produces 5.4 GWh of

electricity per year, which
is only 18% of the available
energy in the basin.
Sihwa Tidal Barrage Power Plant
Site Conditions
Mean tidal range : 5.6m
Basin area : 43km2(MSL)
Capacity : 254MW
Estimated annual output : 553GWh
One-way flood generation
Construction History
Sea dyke of 12.7km completed in 1994
Proposed as a counter measure to
lake water pollution in 1997
Feasibility study in 2002
Plant construction 2004 to 2010
 Tidal Turbines

Efforts are underway to anchor turbines to the ocean floor to harness tidal
energy. This concept is proven, and in practice in a handful of locations on
a small scale.

This form of generation has many advantages over its other tidal energy
rivals. The turbines are submerged in the water and are therefore out of
sight. They dont pose a problem for navigation and shipping and require
the use of much less material in construction.

Tidal turbines are vastly better than wind turbines in terms of efficiency. A
tidal turbine produces 4 times the output power per square meter of
sweep area as a wind turbine, with a substantially smaller environmental
impact.
Siemens SeaGen (S) Tidal Turbine
 Domestic Tidal Power

There are no tidal power stations in the U.S., but plans are underway to
build a small tidal power farm in the East River of NYC.
300 underwater turbines
On average, 10 MW of power (44GWh of electricity per year, enough
for 8000 households)

Alaska, Maine, and southeast Canada are potential target areas for
barrages.
 Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)

The worlds oceans constitute a vast natural reservoir for receiving and
storing heat energy from the sun

Nearly 75% of the surface area of Earth is water. Due to the high heat
capacity of water, the, water near the surface is maintained at significant
higher temperatures than water at greater depth

It is possible to extract energy from the oceans through the use of heat
engines in order to exploit the temperature differences between warm
surface water and the cold, deep water
Oceanic Temperature Differences Between
Surface and 1000m Depth
 Closed-Cycle OTEC System

Closed-cycle systems have been considered for OTEC.

In such a system, a low heat capacity working fluid passes through a
heat exchanger (evaporator) which
The vapor passes through an expansion valve and forces the rotation
of a turbine
Cold water from the depths cools the condenses the working fluid via
heat exchanger, and the process repeats.
 Example

Using the water temperatures from the last slide, calculate the theoretical
efficiency of an ideal heat engine?

278
= 1 100% = 1 100% = 6.7%
298

Of course, this is the maximum possible efficiency for an ideal system.

The actual efficiency would be closer to 3%.
To produce 40MW, the water intake pipes would need to be 10m in
diameter, about the size of a traffic tunnel.
Average coal plant: 670 MW
 Advancing OTEC?
The OTEC concept was first introduced in 1881. In 1930, the first OTEC
test system was constructed.

This test system was open-cycle. Unfortunately, the system consumed

more power than it produced.

Very little was done after this until the 1970s when rising fuel costs
prompted the US to reopen studies of OTEC
The Department of Energy financed the design of a large floating OTEC
plant intended to provide power to the islands, with transmission lines
running along the ocean floor
A small test plant (10 kW) was built in the late 70s and operated
successfully for four months off the coast of Hawaii. Since then, there
has been no support of OTEC technology
 Wave Energy
The kinetic energy of moving
waves can be used to power a
turbine.
In this simple example the wave
rises into a chamber. The rising
water forces the air out of the
chamber. The moving air spins a
turbine which can turn a
generator.
When the wave drops, this
creates a vacuum in the
chamber, causing air to flow in
the opposite direction
Classification of Wave Energy Conversion Technologies

Wave Activated
Attenuator Point
absorber

Submerged Pressure Oscillating Wave Surge

differential Converter

OWC Wave Overtopping

Overtopping Device

Oscillating Water Column

31
Classification of Wave Energy Conversion Technologies

Examples
1. Attenuator ------ Pelamis Pelamis Offshore Wave Energy in Portugal
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/pelamis-offshore-wave-energy-
portugal/

2. Point Absorber ------ Power Buoy (OPT)

http://www.oceanpowertechnologies.com/tech.htm

3. Oscillating Wave Surge Converter

http://www.emec.org.uk/wave_energy_devices.asp

4. Oscillating Wave Column (OWC) ----- (compress the air, near the shore
line) http://www.daedalus.gr/OWCsimulation2.html

5. Overtopping Devise ------ Wave Dragon

http://www.wavedragon.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view
&id=6&Itemid=5
Wave Devices in Deployment

Power Buoy, OPT AWS Oyster,

Ocean Aquamarine
Energy Power

Pelamis Wave Power LIMPET, Wavegen Wave Dragon

33
Classification of Wave Energy Conversion Technologies

Examples
6. Aquamarine Power------ Oyster
http://www.aquamarinepower.com/technologies/
http://trendsupdates.com/the-oyster-aquamarine-powers-answer-for-
clean-energy-demands/

7. AWS Ocean Energy

http://www.awsocean.com/PageProducer.aspx

8. Wavegen ----- LIMPET

http://www.wavegen.co.uk/what_we_offer_limpet.htm
 Technologies

Classification of Tide Energy Conversion Technologies

Horizontal Axis Turbine Vertical Axis Turbine

Oscillating Hydrofoil Venturi Effect

35
Others
Tidal Devices in Deployment

SeaGen, MCT Ltd Uldolmok Stingray, EB

Helical
Turbine,
KORDI

Lunar Open
Energy Hydro
36
 Classification of Tide Energy Conversion Technologies
1. The European Marine Energy Center Ltd.
http://www.emec.org.uk/index.asp (information about marine
energy) http://www.emec.org.uk/marine-energy/wave-devices/

2. Seagen MCT Ltd http://www.alternative-energy-

news.info/seagen-tidal-power-installation/

3. Uldolmok Helical Turbine, KORDI (see Korea_tide_energy)

4. Stingray, EB http://www.bwea.com/marine/devices.html

5. Lunar Energy Ltd. http://www.lunarenergy.co.uk/

6. Openhydro Group
http://www.snopud.com/PowerSupply/tidal/tidalbg/tidalopenhydr
o.ashx?p=1511
1. Introduction

Global top 10 capacity

(land based + offshore)

30% 26.8%

21.2%
5% 29%
11.1%
Global Wind Energy Council (2013)

Global Wind Energy Council (2013)

38
1. Introduction

Global cumulative offshore installed

capacity
2947.9

921.1

379.5 389.6

Global Wind Energy Council (2013)

39
 Advantages

Renewable and clean

Tides are predictable
There is a vast potential for energy generation
With tidal turbines, the structures are out of sight
Less required material for tidal turbines than wind
 Disadvantages

Like wind and solar, tidal power is intermittent

In addition, the hydraulic head obtained from tides is also variable

Tides do not align with peak energy demand times

With regard to barrages, some of the environmental impacts of dams are

present with this technology as well, though to a much lower extent

VERY, VERY, VERY EXPENSIVE

Only produces 1/3 of the electricity that a hydropower plant of equal
size would produce
Wave power sites produce low energy output
 Attenuator
An attenuator is a floating device which operates parallel to the wave direction and
effectively rides the waves. These devices capture energy from the relative motion of the two
arms as the wave passes them.
 POINT ABSORBER

A point absorber is a floating structure which absorbs energy from all directions through its
movements at/near the water surface. It converts the motion of the buoyant top relative to
the base into electrical power. The power take-off system may take a number of forms,
depending on the configuration of displacers/reactors.
 OSCILLATING WAVE SURGE CONVERTER

Oscillating wave surge converters extract energy from wave surges and the movement of
water particles within them. The arm oscillates as a pendulum mounted on fixed support.
 OSCILLATING WATER COLUMN

An oscillating water column is a partially submerged, hollow structure. It is open to the sea
below the water line, enclosing a column of air on top of a column of water. Waves cause the
water column to rise and fall, which in turn compresses and decompresses the air column.
This trapped air is allowed to flow to and from the atmosphere via a turbine, which usually
has the ability to rotate regardless of the direction of the airflow. The rotation of the turbine
is used to generate electricity.
 OVERTOPPING/TERMINATOR DEVICE

Overtopping devices capture water as waves break into a storage reservoir. The
water is then returned to the sea passing through a conventional low-head turbine
which generates power. An overtopping device may use collectors to concentrate
the wave energy.
 SUBMERGED PRESSURE DIFFERENTIAL

Submerged pressure differential devices are typically located near shore and
attached to the seabed. The motion of the waves causes the sea level to rise and
fall above the device, inducing a pressure differential in the device. The alternating
pressure pumps fluid through a system to generate electricity.
 BULGE WAVE

Bulge wave technology consists of a rubber tube filled with water, moored to the
seabed heading into the waves. The water enters through the stern and the
passing wave causes pressure variations along the length of the tube, creating a
bulge. As the bulge travels through the tube it grows, gathering energy which can
be used to drive a standard low-head turbine located at the bow, where the water
then returns to the sea.
 ROTATING MASS

Two forms of rotation are used to capture energy by the movement of the device
heaving and swaying in the waves. This motion drives either an eccentric weight or
a gyroscope causes precession. In both cases the movement is attached to an
electric generator inside the device.