The new water wheel that will save us all.

[Billy]

A development agency near you has shelled out cash to fund this idea.



The prototype is being tested in Lake Lothing, Lowestoft and then it will be tried in Gt Yarmouth.

Apparently the original version was for trying to get more money from the wind farm sites by using these things.

http://www.4nrg.co.uk/BroadsAuthority.html

   or am I just cynical.  I just can't see how the output can justify the cost and maintenance.

billy

 

[ericw]

   or am I just cynical.  I just can't see how the output can justify the cost and maintenance.

billy

 

Especially when you notice the target price stated on http://www.4nrg.co.uk/Projects.html

"The target price is around £3m for each 1mw device"

[Ivan]

3-man band. Despite talk of prototypes being successfully tested, not a single photograph of any prototype or project of any sort. When I see a website with high quality graphic design, news pages which only feature the successful receipt of funds it does suggest that the product is due to sink without trace

[Dyslexicbloke]

Given that these are momentum based devices, IE zip head, it strikes me that a tidal mill type system, several of which are currently under evaluation, would make much better use of the available kinetic energy.

I also wonder why the pic shows a gate, wouldn’t that only be required if some head were involved ….
I agree, it looks like a snake oil project designed to extract money rather than power !!

Al

[dhaslam]

They may have miscalculated a  little.   If the output is 1 MW  each they would have to be running all the time at about  double the current electricity value to make £1 million per annum and tides just don't work like that.         It would be good to have a large scale tidal project  somewhere as a pilot project so even this one isn't financially viable it  would be  a step in the  right direction.   

[Kombi]

It would be good to have a large scale tidal project  somewhere as a pilot project so even this one isn't financially viable it  would be  a step in the  right direction.   

The French have had one on the river Rance for years but never built another one. I don't know if there are any data publicly available.

[Billy]

The one in the picture is for Great Yarmouth and incorporates a flood gate to combat tidal surge I think.

billy

 

[Ivan]

There's nothing new about tidal mills. The romans used them. I think they have great potential, but only for relatively small amounts of power, unless you're talking the Severn Barrage or damming the Irish Sea

[Billy]

Oh yes, time/place, don't rule them out but laced between a couple of windmills on the east coast, I think not.

but hey, what do I know?

billy

 

[mespilus]

It would be good to have a large scale tidal project  somewhere as a pilot project so even this one isn't financially viable it  would be  a step in the  right direction.   

The French have had one on the river Rance for years but never built another one. I don't know if there are any data publicly available.

It was our first stop,
when we left the Portsmouth - St. Malo ferry
when we visited a couple of years ago.

If you believe the French government figures for an
ego-boosting national project:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rance_Tidal_Power_Station

I remember reading in the visitor centre,
it took many years for the ecology of the
'dammed' zone to recover to anything like what it was
before construction,
and,
some species have not returned.