offshore tidal

[Moxi]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technol ... 47298ca5bf

Sounds over complicated to me and then add in the offshore nature of it - however it does as an article bring to the fore the enormous energy benefit sat around our extensive coastline.

Moxi

[John_S]

It fails to mention that it would only work where there is a large tidal range between high and low water. In many parts of the UK the range is under 4m, with, IIRC, Lowestoft having a low of around 2m. There is no way that a height difference or head of water of a fraction of that size, with three pools, would generate electricity economically.

Except in place with large tidal ranges, perhaps >10m, tidal lagoons or barrages are unlikely to be economic.

Test plants in the Pentland Firth have yet to show that generating from tidal streams can be economically viable.

[Stinsy]

My understanding is that for tidal to work you need a huuge lagoon that is filled an emptied through a narrow opening.

However I'm not onboard with tidal in general. It seems to be horribly damaging to the marine ecosystem and seems to be an extremely hostile environment for machinery with moving parts.

[Sunrisemike]

I have always thought that it should be possible to build cheap Mississippi paddle boat wheel and use them in reverse. Instead of powering a ship, let the water power a turbine. We have anywhere up to 7 knots of tide running through Hurst straight at the West end of the Solent. Two huge pylons 50 meters apart, a paddle wheel suspended at each end on floating tanks that rise and fall with the tide, held in place by the pylons. Half of the wheel is out of the water, the other half being driven by the current. 5 meter blades 50 meters long, should churn out a decent amount of power. On an ebb tide and a good Sou westerly breeze would also add some wind power!

Mike

[John_S]

Paddle wheel turbines are notoriously inefficient. I recall reading of various studies of using them on fast flowing rivers and it was not economic.

Also, just imagine the impact of huge paddle turbines in a narrow channel full of yachts, eg at the start of the Round the Island race.

I have entered the Solent twice in force 10 winds at night and would not want to have to spot and dodge semi submersed obstacles.

[Sunrisemike]

You would put nets out to strain out yachts and debris, floating at surface level. Maybe inefficient, but they used to power the Mississippi paddle boats. I would like to see the maths, I'm useless at it. Hurst narrows maybe an inconvenient location, but there could be other locations more suited.

[Adokforme]

Not actually offshore but along similar lines capturing energy from flowing rivers.
https://achelous.co.uk/

[Joeboy]

Not actually offshore but along similar lines capturing energy from flowing rivers.
https://achelous.co.uk/

Had a quick look. Had double the crowdfunding required by Nov 21. Yet their news section doesn't show anything since? I'd have hoped to see the first unit installed by now?

A nice idea though on the right river with a decent power to shore J lay and not too many tree trunks coming down.

[Adokforme]

Being a bit of a sucker for new clean energy projects I couldn't resist having a little dabble. Found the below statement from them in case of interest. Seems they've been quite busy.... apart from updating the website that is!

Yep, tree trunks and all sorts of rubbish certainly something to contend with.

Since finalising the Seedrs raise in January, we’ve had a jam-packed year…

With your help, and despite the significant political headwinds in Myanmar, we have:
• Finalised and closed-out our IUK EC7 demonstrator project, bringing the two-year, “through-COVID”, “through-coup” project to a successful conclusion, designing, building, testing and patenting a new form of renewable energy generation technology that has the potential to make REAL impact in so many areas
• Undertaken extended testing of our FITS demonstrator to prove the generation outputs of the turbines, and to provide a comprehensive de-risking FITS technology at full-scale, enabling our pathway forward towards a pilot project

As a result of this, we have been able to:
• Successfully reorient the forward business pathway from Myanmar to Nepal:
o Securing Letters of Support from national and local government in Nepal
o Identifying and resource-mapping an Energy Access pilot project location in Karnali
o Securing a £0.71m GBP IUK EC9 grant to develop this pilot project, starting January 2023
o Engaging with the Nepal Energy Authority (NEA) to identify a pipeline of follow-on locations for both Energy Access and grid-connected power delivery projects

In parallel, we:
• Advanced our engagements in New Zealand through UK DIT, and in the USA with Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) signing a Letter of Support to assist in our application to the Global Accelerator Programme in New York state.
• Were awarded a place on the UK Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) Sustainable Impact Investment Programme (SIIP). As one of 13 selected companies, Achelous benefitted from a three-month accelerator programme, the aim of which was to equip identified high-growth potential SMEs with the "knowledge, tools and investor connections to raise their next round of investment up to £5m through a confident proposition, materials, and communications"

And that’s not all… in addition to everything above, we have been working hard alongside one of our anchor investors to further develop our pathways for deploying FITS technology here in the UK (Lindsay’s comment in the discussion forum yesterday was very timely!). We have been engaged with multiple parties including UK regulation bodies (SEPA, EA etc), marina owners, test sites and possible commercial off-takers. There is lots more expected on this front in Q1 next year, and I will look forward to updating you all then on the progress that has been made.

As a closing thought: during the SIIP workshops we attended, all the companies were asked “why do you do what you do”?
Our reply was rapid and indelicately phrased, but remains absolutely true: Because we actually have the chance to make a real bl**dy difference.

As investors in Achelous, we hope you all feel the same.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a great start to 2023.

Tim & James

[Joeboy]

Being a bit of a sucker for new clean energy projects I couldn't resist having a little dabble. Found the below statement from them in case of interest. Seems they've been quite busy.... apart from updating the website that is!

Yep, tree trunks and all sorts of rubbish certainly something to contend with.

Since finalising the Seedrs raise in January, we’ve had a jam-packed year…

With your help, and despite the significant political headwinds in Myanmar, we have:
• Finalised and closed-out our IUK EC7 demonstrator project, bringing the two-year, “through-COVID”, “through-coup” project to a successful conclusion, designing, building, testing and patenting a new form of renewable energy generation technology that has the potential to make REAL impact in so many areas
• Undertaken extended testing of our FITS demonstrator to prove the generation outputs of the turbines, and to provide a comprehensive de-risking FITS technology at full-scale, enabling our pathway forward towards a pilot project

As a result of this, we have been able to:
• Successfully reorient the forward business pathway from Myanmar to Nepal:
o Securing Letters of Support from national and local government in Nepal
o Identifying and resource-mapping an Energy Access pilot project location in Karnali
o Securing a £0.71m GBP IUK EC9 grant to develop this pilot project, starting January 2023
o Engaging with the Nepal Energy Authority (NEA) to identify a pipeline of follow-on locations for both Energy Access and grid-connected power delivery projects

In parallel, we:
• Advanced our engagements in New Zealand through UK DIT, and in the USA with Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) signing a Letter of Support to assist in our application to the Global Accelerator Programme in New York state.
• Were awarded a place on the UK Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) Sustainable Impact Investment Programme (SIIP). As one of 13 selected companies, Achelous benefitted from a three-month accelerator programme, the aim of which was to equip identified high-growth potential SMEs with the "knowledge, tools and investor connections to raise their next round of investment up to £5m through a confident proposition, materials, and communications"

And that’s not all… in addition to everything above, we have been working hard alongside one of our anchor investors to further develop our pathways for deploying FITS technology here in the UK (Lindsay’s comment in the discussion forum yesterday was very timely!). We have been engaged with multiple parties including UK regulation bodies (SEPA, EA etc), marina owners, test sites and possible commercial off-takers. There is lots more expected on this front in Q1 next year, and I will look forward to updating you all then on the progress that has been made.

As a closing thought: during the SIIP workshops we attended, all the companies were asked “why do you do what you do”?
Our reply was rapid and indelicately phrased, but remains absolutely true: Because we actually have the chance to make a real bl**dy difference.

As investors in Achelous, we hope you all feel the same.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a great start to 2023.

Tim & James

Nice to read, cheers!