Alstom has improved the design of its 1 MW tidal stream turbine and now offers the Oceade™ 18 – 1.4 MW: a turbine even more efficient, cost-effective and easy to maintain.
With a rotor diameter of 18 metres, the Oceade tidal stream turbine has a nominal power of 1.4MW and three variable pitching blades. It is equipped with plug-and-play modules on rails, easily accessible through an inspection hatch at the rear of the nacelle to enable faster assembly and maintenance.
This turbine is buoyant, making it easy to tow to and from the operating site. Installation and maintenance costs are therefore lower because there is no need for specialist vessels and divers. It also reduces the timeframe to install or retrieve the turbine. The unit rotates to face the incoming tide at an optimal angle and thus extract the maximum energy potential.
The Oceade is ready to be deployed at the tidal energy farm that will be selected in the call for expressions of interest launched in September 2013 by the French government.
Alstom is currently working on the development of an Oceade™ platform concept to reduce the price of electricity and maximise the use of tidal stream resources according to local conditions (tidal current speed and depth) .
In January 2013, Alstom successfully deployed a 1MW tidal stream turbine at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), a test site located off the coast of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Alstom is currently testing the turbine, which has already reached nominal power of 1MW, demonstrated its autonomous running capability and generated over 500MWh on the Scottish grid, as part of the ReDapt Project (Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal), which is commissioned and co funded by the ETI (Energy Technologies Institute).
“With this new tidal energy production solution, Alstom has made definite headway. The project is seeking to demonstrate a new design for an efficient, reliable turbine to reduce installation and maintenance costs with a view to commercial production,” declared Jacques Jamart, Alstom Senior Vice-President New Energies.
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Press release, October 01, 2014; Image: alstom