State of the Art in Floating Tidal Current Power Plant Using Multi-Vertical-Axis-Turbines

Abstract

A floating tidal current power plant may be used to extract near-surface tidal current velocity into electricity. To capture energy from the tidal current which changes direction, a vertical axis tidal current turbine is needed. And, to increase capacity, tidal current turbines are arranged in multi-system. This power plant consists of multi-turbines, electrical systems, and a floating structure as a support. With the superposition of power from each turbine, this system may keep the performance of the power plant by using a floating structure. The performance of tidal current turbines may be affected by the motion responses of the floating structures as the supporting structure. This effect may reduce the efficiency of the turbine. Therefore, the selection of supporting structures is an important topic in the study of the tidal current power plant. Several researchers have previously selected the supporting structure to maintain the performance of the tidal current turbine in a relatively good condition. These researchers have investigated structures, i.e pontoon, semi-submersible, tension leg platform, and spar, including the development of spar into quad-spar. These structures were investigated according to the effect of their motion responses on turbine performance. The lower the motion response, the smaller the effect on changes in turbine performance. Therefore, the configuration of the supporting structure is chosen by considering the responses. The development of this research provides a new foundation for continuing this topic. Therefore, this paper presents the state of the art from previous research regarding the selection of supporting structures and the arrangement of multi-turbines in a floating tidal current power plant.