The Energy Capture Efficiency Increased by Choosing the Optimal Layout of Turbines in Tidal Power Farm

Abstract

In recent years, with the development of global economy, many environmental issues, such as energy shortage and global warming are becoming more and more serious all over the world, and more attention was paid on the better use of marine renewable energy. Among all the variety of marine renewable energy, tidal power generation technology is relatively mature. In order to gain more tidal energy for the purpose of commercial application, one of the best ways is to make turbine arrays in tidal power farm. Because of the wake effects on tidal steam turbines in tidal power farm, the performance of the flow field around the turbines was changed and has impact on the capture efficiency of electric power. Therefore, study on the interaction effects on tidal stream turbines and the optimization of the layout of the tidal stream turbine array becomes one of the key problems in the construction of tidal power farm, which directly influences the economic benefits of tidal power farm. There are many parameters that have impact on turbines in tidal farms, such as the distance between turbines, the longitudinal and lateral layout, the rotation direction of rotors, and so on. In this paper, different approaches (such as numerical calculating and simulation, model test, etc.) to study on the optimizing the layout of the horizontal axis tidal steam turbines in tidal power farm were introduced. These research works will provide theoretical basis for the construction of tidal power farms in the future. Optimized layout of turbines in tidal power farm can increase the capture efficiency of tidal turbines, and it has great sense to relieve energy shortage and global warming problem by obtaining more marine renewable energy.