SMD

SMD understand the need for collaboration within the marine renewable energy industry to accelerate commercialisation and are actively pursuing opportunities to utilise the experience gained in developing TidEL to commercially assist other device developers.

Using the extensive experience gained in subsea design engineering SMD have already designed and tested a 1/10^th scale model of a deep water, moored tidal stream generating device concept, known as ‘TidEL’, at the National and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) in Blyth.

The full scale prototype will consist of two contra-rotating 500kW turbine/generators mounted together by a cross beam, the complete assembly being buoyant and secured to the seabed. The novel mooring system allows the turbines to align themselves ‘downstream’ of the prevailing tidal flow without requiring any external intervention, providing a reliable way of tracking the alternating tidal flow cycle.

These 1MW units are designed to be mounted in an offshore tidal environment with a peak velocity of 9 knots (or more) in a water depth of greater than 30 meters with no visual impact on the environment. A similar size or larger variants could be deployed in Ocean Flow.