Floating Hydrokinetic Turbine - The Archimedes
Overview
Interest in river, tidal, and ocean current energy harvesting systems is gathering pace as a huge number of devices move from the drawing board, through prototype and testing phases and on to commercial developments. However, additional innovation is needed to make these emerging technologies cost competitive in most markets. The Archimedes is designed as a small-scale axial flow Floating Hydrokinetic Turbine (FHT) designed to produce at least 10 W of electrical power in a minimum current of 0.6 m/s that shall be mounted to an integrated floating structure. This FHT and the associated floating structure is designed to operate when either moored directly to the seabed. This FHT contains an experimental turbine blade design not tested in a marine environment, and provides quantitative data towards understanding the efficiencies of this design. An Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) is used to characterize the flow field, allowing for the calculation of the FHT’s power coefficient.
Community Benefit
Clean renewable energy production can be a benefit to the community and the environment as a whole. This project looks into providing a solution to converting the kinetic energy of Florida's inter-coastal environment into electrical energy. This energy produced by the water's current will help provide environmental sustainability and a reduction in the overall carbon footprint from power supplies.
Team Members
Sponsored By
FPL Center for Intelligent Energy Technologies (InETech)