DIIA GLOBAL EDITION

The Evopod™ Report

© DIIA 2011

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY REPORT

Photo above: Evopod™ is a device for generating electricity from free flowing tidal streams, river estuaries and ocean currents. It is a unique floating solution drawing upon proven technologies used in the offshore oil and gas and marine industries. CERTAIN PHOTOS ENLARGE ON ‘CLICK’

T

he old fisherman stopped mending his net for a few moments to watch the proud executive in his designer all weather gear attempting to bring his new cabin cruiser alongside the berth. He was coming in quite nicely against the wind and crew on board were getting ready to deploy those clean blue fenders over the side. His wife stood determined & ready on the bow with mooring line in hand, as an over-enthusiastic crew member stretched to place one foot on the pontoon’s edge. Unfortunately, as the vessel reduced speed, the stern was quietly starting to slip broadside in the current. The boat was certainly not stopping. Of course, he should have come in against the tide. Powerful force – water on the move: unbalances the best – especially if you are simultaneously performing the splits!

The Three Gorges Dam in China

The Three Gorges Dam, has however flooded archaeological and cultural sites and displaced some 1.3 million people, and is causing significant ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides. The dam has been a controversial topic both in China and abroad.

17th Century Water Mill

This 1661 building stands adjacent to the River Alyn at Rosset.UK.

Harnessing that power can take many forms. Massive dams can release a few billion gallons of water through multi-million dollar Hydro electric projects. The Three Gorges Dam that spans the Yangtze River in China is the world’s largest capacity hydro-electric power station with a total generating capacity of 18,200 MW which will soon be expanded to 22,500 MW. At the other end of the scale you have the simple process of using water to turn the wheel of an old mill.

Ever since electricity was discovered, governments, companies and individuals have tried to find ways to produce more efficient, cost effective (and more recently, eco-friendly) methods to feed global demand. Professor Stephen Salter of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland was one of the first pioneers of alternative energy who looked towards water, our rivers & seas. He developed an invention in 1974 that became known as Salter's Duck or Nodding Duck, although it was officially referred to as the Edinburgh Duck. In small scale controlled tests, the Duck's curved cam-like body stopped 90% of wave motion and converted 90% of that to electricity giving 81% efficiency. In the 1980s, as the oil price went down, wave-energy funding was drastically reduced. Nevertheless, a few first-generation prototypes were tested at sea. More recently, following the issue of climate change and in response to the Oil Crisis, a number of researchers are starting to seriously re-examine the potential of generating energy from Mother Nature’s H20 (Water – for those not into symbols).

Researchers in France, for example, are studying how to generate electricity from falling rain. Their experiments show how raindrops can generate power by striking a piezoelectric material, which converts mechanical energy into electricity. Another organization is actually looking into the possibility of using a turbine system generating energy from the flow of water through municipal pipes. You never know, flushing toilets and rushing waste water might soon be re-charging that new electric car in your garage.

Then, there’s the U.S. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s clean-energy, underwater robotic glider. The vehicle gets its power thanks to the variation of temperatures underwater: warm at the surface, cooler at depth. When the glider is in warm water, the wax in its engine tubes expands – converting heat energy into mechanical energy – so pushing the vehicle deeper into the water. As the vehicle dives into the cooler depths, the wax contracts and that motion drives the glider upwards to warmer temperatures where the cycle repeats.

“We are tapping a virtually unlimited energy source for propulsion,” said Woods Hole Oceanographer Dave Fratantoni.

Are you really ready for Matrix power?

The-great-wave-off-kanagawa-hokusai-iconic-japanese-art

Bio-fuel energy from chicken manure.

All a bit Matrix…

"Creativity is thinking up new things.  Innovation is doing new things." – Theodore Levitt (economist, professor)

Now these days, there are a lot people who think up new ideas to extract electricity from water power: novel ways to produce alternative energy. You have to ask the questions however ‘Is the method or device practical, reliable, cost effective and unlikely to cause an adverse impact to your environment? Is the device too complicated, too big, too difficult to comprehend or simply unrealistic? What are you going to gain by your investment in the new technology?

Unfortunately, in my experience, the way global government officials, local council representatives, port & river authorities and everyone else interested in alternative energy view some of these new ideas is similar to my view of powering your car on the bi-product of manure. Yes, it can be done. It’s an interesting development: bio-fuel science – energy from waste. But in truth, I’m not going to rush out and buy a thousand chickens. I think I’m still going to be using my local petrol station for some time yet.

All over the world, people take time to accept new methods of producing energy. They plug into their national grids that strain under the demand placed on their nuclear, oil, gas and coal power stations. For those in remote areas, they run their portable generators into the ground and put up with the noise and diesel fumes. But that’s the norm and the norm is hard to change.

In recent years, residents in Scotland, Indonesia, Chile, China, USA and many other nations have gradually come to accept the if you place a large propeller on top of a massive pole, you can boast wind power for the community. Of course, the sight of a few hundred massive turbine structures in front of your beach resort has resulted in continuous complaint and those concerned with wildlife welfare are not slow in publishing photos of that unfortunate bird that flew too close to the wind farm in question.

There’s nothing wrong however in people wanting to protect the beauty of their home and preserve their landscapes: although, I’d go for a clean white wind turbine over a nuclear power station or coal fired plant any day of the week. Birds, wildlife and nature’s inhabitants of our seas should be protected as well but to be fair to the majority of the 21^st Century alternative energy sector, most are sincerely concerned about the protection of our environment: impact on local communities, carbon emissions, wildlife and marine life.

Tyne Turbine Technology

With Theodore Levitt’s quote on Creativity & Innovation in mind however, it is interesting to note that one Tyneside (UK) company, Oceanflow Energy, has not only ‘created’ a new device for generating electricity from free flowing tidal streams, river estuaries and ocean currents but has also taken their concept, research & development to the ‘innovative’ level. Their Evopod™ device is not just an idea. It actually works! It clearly produces alternative energy in a simple, efficient and reliable way.

Naturally, environmental impact is a key issue in gaining acceptance of new technologies. Primary concerns relating to tidal stream turbine installations are interference with the local ecosystem during installation activities, the potential of the rotating blades to injure fish and sea mammals and the loss of leisure / fishing areas and navigation space for other users of the sea area. As Evopod™ is a floating tethered device it imposes less disturbance on sensitive seabed ecosystems and its single turbine rotates at such low speeds (10 – 20rpm) that they are likely to be a low threat to marine wild life. An added bonus - the device is not an eyesore when viewed from the sea or shore and presents no threat to navigation.

You see, Evopod’s novel mooring solution employs a tight envelope to reduce the size of the exclusion zone for shipping. A seabed region of one square kilometre can support 39 x E1500 units giving, in an area such as the Pentland Firth, Scotland - a total rated output of 58.5MW and enough energy to support 40,000 homes. This would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 140,000 tonnes per annum, if replacing power from a coal-fired power station.

Evopod™ has been thoroughly tested: being relatively easy to deploy & maintain. Quite simply, Oceanflow Energy’s Evopod™ is well worth taking a closer look at. Many countries around the world have a coastline, fast flowing waterway or river estuary where the Evopod™ could be a useful solution to energy requirements. What’s more, it will not sink your budget.

UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg recently discussed the award winning Evopod™ technology with the Oceanflow’s MD Graeme Mackie. Graeme gave a short presentation to Mr Clegg, who was very interested to hear about the company’s unique work in sea & river power research and development. Oceanflow is one of a handful of companies in the world to be developing tidal energy devices suitable for deep sea tidal and ocean current energy extraction and is also the first company to successfully test a semi-submerged floating tidal device in real sea conditions. The 1/10th scale Evopod™ being inspected by Mr Clegg (see photo opposite) is now back in Northern Ireland for further sea trials as a grid connected unit.

Oceanflow Energy has been testing its 1/10th scale Evopod™ at Strangford Narrows near the Portaferry Marine Laboratory in Northern Ireland for some time now. Reports suggest that results have been encouraging to say the least. This 1/10th scale unit is fitted with a 1.5m diameter turbine driving a 1kW permanent magnet AC generator. The power from this generator feeds the navigation light plus an extensive suite of instrumentation (flow speed, voltage, current, torque, revs, temperature, resistor settings, yaw angle, mooring tension) which is logged and transmitted back to Oceanflow's office over a mobile phone data link. Excess power is dissipated as heat into the sea.

Queens University Belfast (QUB) are supporting Oceanflow Energy with the deployment and monitoring of the device and the data produced will support the EPSRC Supergen Marine Phase II generic research programme into tidal energy. Further detailed tests to measure Evopod's wake field were carried out by QUB in September / October 2009.

Project partners include:

Queen's University Belfast - Portaferry Marine Laboratory: Deployment and recovery.

NaREC: Instrumentation, controls and communications package design and build.

William Oliver and Rodman Russell Ltd: Fabrication of Evopod and midwater buoy.

Oceanflow Energy is currently developing a 35kW Evopod (Oceanflow 35) based on a scaled up version of the unit that has been successfully tested in Strangford Narrows. The 35kW unit can be upgraded to 55kW for faster flowing sites and will be available as a grid connected unit or for off-grid supply of electricity for heat or power.

Oceanflow Energy is also developing a twin-turbine version of its Evopod semi-submerged tethered platform. A 1/40th scale model has been tested in Newcastle University’s flume tank with the support of a NEEIC grant. At full scale the unit would be fitted with twin 1.2MW rated generators, each coupled to a 16m diameter three-bladed turbine. The unit would generate its combined rated output of 2.4MW in flow speeds of 3.2m/s or above.

Norfolk Naval Base, United States.

Defense Interaction Intelligence Agency (DIIA) will continue to watch the future development and deployment of the Evopod™ with interest. It crosses my mind – especially with DIIA’s many members from the defense and military world that the Evopod™ could be used to supplement power requirements at various bases that are close to tidal estuaries or oceans. The military are already starting to use wind power. Why not ‘tidal power’ to cut costs and replace current dependency on oil, gas and coal powered sources?

Our colleagues deployed in remote coastal research establishments (currently using generators for their power supply) might also want to consider the advantages of Evopod™ - as might harbours that have to continuously draw power for security lighting in place as counter terrorism infrastructure.

It’s certainly worth serious consideration.

Meanwhile, should members or those visiting our website wish to gain further data on the project, view a video of the device or contact Oceanflow Energy - please access their website at:

http://www.oceanflowenergy.com/index.html

Additional Information:

Ocean Flow were one of two companies to receive a Shell Springboard regional award for the North of England and Scotland, in 2009.

In 2008 Ocean Flow received investment from AMPL to help develop Evopod's commercial capabilities. Aquamarine Power is a global industry top seven marine energy company with head offices in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Ocean Flow Energy are collaborating with Queen's University Belfast in the Strangford Lough 10th scale Evopod trials. This collaboration is part of the wider information project - "SuperGen". QUB provide installation and monitoring services, as well as unique testing programmes designed for the 10th scale Evopod.

Ocean Flow Energy was awarded a DTI Research grant (administered by the North of England RDA OneNorthEast) in July 2005 to validate the Evopod concept and a further Research grant in 2007 to test a 1/10th scale Evopod and its innovative mooring solution in the real bi-directional tidal currents at Strangford Narrows, Northern Ireland.

Scale model tests were carried out at the University of Newcastle’s School of Marine Science and Technology (MAST) at its combined wave and current flume tank to validate turbine efficiency and motion and stability characteristics.

The scale model was built at Design Right Solutions, part of the Sunderland Business Innovation Centre (BIC) using rapid prototyping technology.

Newcastle University’s Research Centre for Innovation and Design (RCID) has supported the development of the mooring solution including the generation of a computer animation of the mooring design.

Evopod was awarded Product of the Year Award 2006  by the Spirit of Innovation 2006 committee. The award scheme celebrates unique achievements in innovation and enterprise throughout the North East.

Evopod was selected by the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) for the demonstration of its large scale tidal testing facility at the Tees Barrage. NaREC also developed the instrumentation and control solution used on the 1/10th scale Evopod unit tested at Strangford Narrows.