The Engineer

High tide for world's largest turbine

News

The world’s largest operational tidal turbine, rated at 1MW, has received £1.9m from the UK government’s Carbon Trust to further improve its design.

The Carbon Trust recently announced £22m total funds for six marine-energy technologies currently under development, including Atlantis Resources’ 18m-diameter bidirectional tidal-stream turbine.

The AK-1000 — which will be the world’s largest turbine when it is commercially rolled out — is expected to be capable of producing 1MW in waters that flow at 2.6m/sec.

Mike Smith, chief operating officer at Atlantis, said the Carbon Trust fund will help develop an improved version of the AK-1000 into a full-scale prototype. The improved version, he said, will be fitted with a low-RPM permanent magnet generator that does not require a gearbox.

Smith said the first version of the AK-1000, which has a high RPM permanent magnet generator and gearbox, will be evaluated this summer at the European Marine Energy Centre in the waters off Scotland’s Orkney Islands. The second version of the AK-1000 will be evaluated there for a year starting in 2011.

Register now to continue reading

Thanks for visiting The Engineer. You’ve now reached your monthly limit of news stories. Register for free to unlock unlimited access to all of our news coverage, as well as premium content including opinion, in-depth features and special reports.  

Benefits of registering

  • In-depth insights and coverage of key emerging trends

  • Unrestricted access to special reports throughout the year

  • Daily technology news delivered straight to your inbox

Register
Or continue by

Signing in with your registered email address