Seagen Tidal Power Generator

Can ‘Marine Current Turbines’ be the next step to making sure future generations are left with some natural resources?

With the world running out of its natural resources in which we rely on for electricity, fuelling our cars, heating our homes plus many more, what are we going to do to ensure we can still have these things in the future and more importantly, how are we going to ensure future generations are left with the resources we had in order to develop new technologies etc. There are many technologies out there designed to produce renewable energy including solar panels, wind turbines hydro electrical dams and marine current turbines.

I have chosen to look more closely in detail at Marine current tubine energy and more in particular at the installation of the Seagen tidal turbine. The Seagen turbine has been in development for four years and is based on results taken from its predecessor ‘Seaflow’ which was installed off the coast of Devon in 2003. The Seagen is currently being installed offshore in Northern Irelands Strangford Lough and is being used as a prototype for the commercial technologies that could follow in the future based on the successes and failures of the Seagen.

The confirmation for this project was given by Marine Current Turbines on June 6th 2007. The Seagen will be the worlds first commercial tidal energy system rated at 1.2MW capacity and also will be the world’s largest ever tidal construction by a significant margin to date. Seagen has been rated to generate sustainable and clean electricity for in and around one thousand homes and due to this, power stations that run on natural resources will be required to produce power for one thousand less homes which intern is already improving the situation with just one turbine.

There are plans in place for the near future to create arrays of these submerged turbines almost exactly like wind farms. Due to the density of water and the predictability of the underwater currents the turbines can be placed closer together and can also be a lot smaller than wind turbines that would produce the same amount of energy. The turbines will also be bi-directional which means they will work with the current in both directions maximising the amount of electricity that can be gained from such a technology.

Seagen Tidal Turbine

As with most technologies of this nature there are always going to be opposing parties who question the benefits and also the damage to the locality a technology like this could pose. There are parties that are worried about the damage to sea life that could be inflicted due to the size and nature of this technology.

A big question that needs to be answered is, can these submerged turbines meet the electrical demands of town or cities nearby and if not what other methods can be put in place to coincide with these turbines to meet the demand? This is a decisive factor to the technology because society could deem it as insignificant because it cant supply demand.

The relevance that this topic poses for me is one of two things, concern for future generations and making life easier, and also my interest in new technologies.

It is of significant relevance to me that future generations have the opportunity to experience a lot that I have experienced in life so far plus more. If the worlds natural resources do run out before there are technologies in places to supply the electricity demand, future generations are going to be deprived of the luxuries that at present people take for granted.

It’s a high probability that this technology will take off based on the results of the Seagen, which intern could mean this technology could have an immediate impact on my life and others around me in both the way we think and live. Personally I think that it’s beneficial to the survival of future generations that greener technologies are in place so that the issue of global warming can be taken care of and the issue of the ever decreasing fossil fuels can be addressed.

Throughout this article there have been questions that need to be reviewed and answered in order to establish if this technology can be a success and therefore sustainable for the future. The plan is to investigate further into the benefits and possible drawbacks of implementing such a technology into our lives. Reading into this subject I have gained a personal interest and liking to the concept, so through my investigation of the project I am going to keep the question that is outlined at the top of this page in mind while trying to answer with and un-biased opinion.

To balance up different opinions on this project I am going to conduct an investigation using both primary and secondary information. Secondary information can be quite biased as it is taken from other people’s opinions so I will try to be careful when picking my information. The primary information I collect will hopefully be somewhat un-biased as I will be collecting it myself by contacting parties involved with the project and also will try to get in contact with people who are opposed to it. It is important to find out what the opposition are opposing against because they have the power to potentially stop this technology from progressing. It is down to society to accept a technology because if it is not in demand then it cannot be successful.

Secondary Resources
http://www.marineturbines.com/home.htm
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/seagen-tidal-power-installation/
http://www.seageneration.co.uk/
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file33162.pdf
http://www.britishwindenergy.co.uk/marine/devices.html