Tidal turbine ready to power 1000 homes

The largest tidal turbine in the world, which weighs in at whopping 1000 tonnes, has been successfully installed at Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough. The tidal turbine is capable of producing 1.2 megawatts, which is sufficient power for 1000 regular local houses.

The tidal turbine was built by a company called Marine Current Turbines, and is the first commercial tidal turbine to produce usable power. It is set to go fully operational in a few months.

The turbine utilizes two, twin rotors that each measure16 meters in diameter. The two rotors are intended operate for around 18 to 20 hours every day, which will produce enough clean and green power for a small town.

The turbine is being placed in position just 400 meters from the shore, off Strangford Lough, which is well know for its strong, fast tidal current while still having protection from severe weather. The two rotors of the SeaGen turbine will turn slowly, at only 10-20 rev’s per minute. By comparison, a large ship’s propellers will turn at 200 revs.

The risk to the local sea-life from SeaGen’s rotor blades is limited, this is because the marine creatures that live in these strong currents tend to be fast and agile, as such, they can easily avoid the slow-moving propellers of the turbine.

Current Turbines spokesman, Martin Wright said: “We will build on the success of SeaGen to develop a commercial tidal farm, of up to 10MW in UK waters, within the next three years. With the right funding and regulatory framework, we believe we can realistically achieve up to 500MW of tidal capacity by 2015 based on this new SeaGen technology.”