Current Power @ UU
Background
Marine currents in rivers, straights and the oceans is a largely unexploited renewable energy resource with substantial potential. Uppsala University has an experimental facility installed at Söderfors in the Dal river. The facility consists of a vertical axis turbine coupled to a direct drive permanent magnetized generator. The choice of technology provides a simple and robust system with low maintenance needs and minimal environmental impact. The research within the project includes design of the low speed permanent magnetized generator and electrical system as well as the vertical axis turbines that can harness energy efficiently from low speed currents.
Aims
The aim is to have power plants that generate electricity with high efficiency at low water speeds. The next step in the research is to further develop the grid connection and to develop and scale up the technology so that it is suitable for tidal applications.
Approaches
- Studies of the potential/resource – development of models based on short series of measurements to compute current speeds, which can then be used for energy forecasts and to calculate the maximum loads.
- System simulations – computational models of the total system for electricity generation from the flowing water, from a description of the flowing water via conversion to electricity in the turbine, generator and electrical system to the power grid.
- Fluid dynamic simulations of flow control and protection of turbines.
- Low speed permanently magnetized generators
- Experimental validation of the generator and the control system – through the experimental facility in Söderfors the generator technology and monitoring and control systems are evaluated and developed in a real environment.
Keywords
Renewable Energy, Marine current power, tidal power
Project leader
Doc. Karin Thomas, projektledare
Other project members
PhD Anders Goude, UU
PhD Johan Forslund, UU
PhD student Minh Thao Nguyen, UU
PhD student Christoffer Fjellstedt, UU
Department of Engineering Sciences, Division of Electricity, Uppsala University
Links and references
Link to the webpage about Marine currents at Uppsala University
