Seaworthy power

Turbines using existing designs could be placed inside large-bore underwater pipes to produce a reliable, clean and cost-effective source of tidal power, a Dorset engineer claims.

Don Cutler, founder of the Weymouth, UK-based engineering firm Tekflo, which developed equipment for water systems and North Sea oil rigs, produced his design after hearing that Portland Harbour was being investigated as the possible site for a wind farm. He has now set up a company, SusGen, to develop his system in collaboration with Southampton University. A working model generating around 100kW should soon be tested offshore, he said.

In the Channel, tides flow in relatively straight lines, varying from a maximum of five knots to zero before the process reverses as the sea flows back. In Cutler’s design a simple framework is attached to a reinforced-concrete base consisting of a hollow box with open ends which is fixed to the seabed by anchors or screws.