Tidal power developer Minesto has announced it has completed the turbine design of its Deep Green tidal power plant together with Schottel Hydro, and has now placed an order for a prototype of the turbine with the German tidal turbine manufacturer for delivery in early 2017.
The order of the so-called Power Take Off system is the first result of the strategic technology partnership between Minesto and Schottel Hydro, which began in December 2015. During 2016 and 2017, Schottel Hydro will deliver a customised turbine solution which will optimally fit the requirements of Deep Green, Minesto's tidal power plant.
"We are very pleased to have completed and verified the turbine design for Deep Green. Compared with the first generation Deep Green, the turbine's performance has been improved by about 10 percent," said Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto. "The partnership with Schottel Hydro works perfectly fine, just as expected. It is important for us that they have taken overall responsibility for developing this important subsystem."
The development of the turbine has, among other things, resulted in a larger rotor diameter. The rotor now has five blades instead of three. The design has been established and verified through model tests by German Schiffbau Versuchsanstalt in Potsdam.
"We completed the detailed design of the turbine and power conversion system for Deep Green," explained Martin Baldus, Technical Director at Schottel Hydro. "The model scale tests prove the turbines performance and cavitation behavior to be advantageous compared to previous designs. The integration of our scope of supply into the Minesto kite system works out very well."
The development of Deep Green now enters the next phase where the design of the full-scale system will be completed.
