Treehugger - Latest Comments in 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Fred Lynk — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:18:41 -0000

for corrosion problems check out this website www.cappsinternational.com this would have been a great product to stop corrosion on this water turbine. would last forever

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Glenn Thompson — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:30:16 -0000

This turbine has been in use for 3 years now and NO reports of chopped up fish and no Cage or sonar to warn them off so the guys that said they can detect things in the water were right! And this does not slow down tidal currents whatsoever! As I live near the area and there hasn't been one problem since it was constructed!

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Jess — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:06:15 -0000

Is this going to be like the wind turbines that everyone said were a green, and environmentally friendly energy source but turned out to not only harm plant and wildlife, humans as well? My money is on yes.

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:59:35 -0000

who ever said they are worried about scuba divers, who would even go near that thing under the water?

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

gabby — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:35:06 -0000

yeah why dont you make one with a wind turbine on it it is a very good idea to do that to harness more energy that a regular tidal turbine does

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Jetzt Ficken — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:56:49 -0000

Dylan, you're absolutely right...

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

D. Bird — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:40:57 -0000

They have been working with all the biologists n the area. Tagging of sea mammals such as seals and porpoises(*sp) has been going on for years now.

The blades only span 15m btw. That's only 6.5m long per blade when accounting for a central hub.

And the fish finder idea to detect and prevent large animals from getting hit was great and feasible considering the blades are variably pitched.

And, yes, better this than a dam.

PS: Tides are caused by the moon and gravity. By "regulating and diminishing" water flow, one could never change the tides. Tidal effects are a symptom of tidal influences. The restrictions created are very small considering the blades are reacting to the tides, not trying to fight them.

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

dylan — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:41:59 -0000

this helped me loads

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

heather — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:32:12 -0000

in response to all the negative responses to this new turbine, consider this: if the maufacturers of this turbine were to make instead a large barrage and cut off the mouth of an estuary, leaving it permanently flooded, how would you feel then? and don't forget, the average fish mortality rate is 15% for a barrage while the sea turbine mortality rate is 0%.

maybe do your research before being so negative.

if we could stick enough of these trubines into an area with strong tidal streams, we could power a city.

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Sputnik — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:05:19 -0000

Two years ago my son designed an almost identical turbine at school, complete with the added windturbine and solar panels. We still have a paper model on the wall. When he was going to take it to his dad's boss, James Dyson, his dad told him not to, "it would never work"! Ha! Eat your hat!

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

David Dunbar — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:41:08 -0000

Anyone who has ever been around the sea for any length of time knows that sea creatures will easily avoid these turbine blades.

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:46:41 -0000

it moves too slowly to be a danger to small fish and anything big enough to be hit by it like a whale could easily take the impact (which would be greatly lessened by the effect of the moving water)

but i think that a whale or dolphin would know it was there from miles away.

as for the potential effect on the tides - the idea is rediculous it would take an ocean FULL of them to have that effect

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

some guy — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:20:56 -0000

that big of a thing looks really dangerous for fishes and stuff i dont think its a good idea are u crazy

>:-( we suppose to make † not kill things even ppl can die if they go scoba diving near that thing or accedently fall down as if the ocean wasnt already danegrous Idiot make ††† losers fuck you

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Boc — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:35:43 -0000

I know the area around Strangford Lough and there is a huge tidal flow in the area (I suspect its why the site was chosen), so it won't be idle half of the day.

The large tidal flow also means there is good marine biodiversity in the area and a lot of marine biologists working nearby.

I would be very surprised if they haven't been consulted on this, and am confident that any negative effects will be spotted quickly and reported extensively.

And don't forget, it's not just fishies that could get chopped up, anyone fancy a dive to see this thing in action? ;-)

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

ric gagnon — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 11:21:02 -0000

well, i haven't sen anyone mention this; for everyone who's worried about the fishies( who i think will avoid them on their own anyway), instead of having giant propeller blades, build it like a jet engine, with a series of impellers inside of an enclosed structure, where it would be easy to screen off from wildlife, huh!!!

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Brad — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:54:04 -0000

Just a little food for thought to all the "It's going to chop up the fish" people. Do you think there is a chance they might build a cage around the blades? Or with blades that big you could have it spin at something like 5rpms and use a gear box to turn raw slow power into faster rpms.

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:56:27 -0000

I´ll try to answer some of your questions, feel free to disagree, as my answers will be made out of my viewpoint:

1- animals being hitten: Thats a nono, any big moving object in water makes a VERY LOUD sound (try to sink your head while someone moves across the poll), and animals will evade this. Also, as spoken before, the water is an UNCOMPRESSIBLE fluid, so the vortex that forms on wind turbines will not form here. Is more likely to the blades repel anything (even sessile lifeforms that could otherwise fix themselves to it).

2-currents/weather changing: The currents where formed by wind/moon/geothermal activity when the crust solidified.

Man would only be able to alter these with that kind of plants if there were one for each 50m², what´s a VERY UNPROBABLE scenery.

Tech´s like these shall be our saviors from the "Houston, we f***** our world!" problem. Keep up the good work guys!

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:48:08 -0000

LOL WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU TRY TO GO SWIMMING HAHAHAHAHAHA

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Eoin — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:25:18 -0000

To those who are concerned about chopped up whales, have you considered that they might put a cage around these bad boys.... you know.... kinda like what you get in a window fan like. Not rocket science, and it would require a tad of maintenance, but not much really.

Sometimes I get the impression that some people want to see problems in everything. Others see challenges. This is potentially wonderful, and sure beats a coal plant.

Peace.

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Will — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:30:31 -0000

I e-mailed them about the possibility of putting a wind-turbine on top a while back.

They replied that they have a patent for such an idea. However, for two reasons they will not be actually doing it any time soon.

First, they think (rightly) that it will make it much harder to get permissions - all the nimbys around, you see.

Second, sites that tend to have the greatest tidal streams tend to be in tight estuaries, where the wind potential is not that great.

Will.

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Kyle — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:26:43 -0000

Where do you think this energy is coming from? (obviously systems like these are peanuts, but drawing energy by slowing down the moon strikes me as a bit funny)

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

M. Linger — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:17:50 -0000

I'm thinking that wind turine on top is a bad idea since sea birds will be wanting to land on it and probably nest on it...

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

KirkH — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:34:16 -0000

You could use underwater radar (fish finder) which would sense animals approaching and temporarily stop the rotor if a whale was approaching.

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

joe — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:26:43 -0000

how about a river turbine?

Re: 1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed

Freeheart — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:09:30 -0000

What about some sort of LOW frequency device that sends out harmless pulses of sound to warn creatures away? Or would that effect whales, etc.?

The net was a good idea as well.

As to disruption of the current; if aligned properly, couldn't they flow WITH the current, as opposed to AGAINST it? Might it not only AID the present current system, or have no impact at all, rather than harm it?