HALES WATER TURBINES HEADS TO SINGAPORE

  Hales Water Turbines Ltd has been asked to give a presentation at the Asia Clean Energy Summit   (ACES ) to be held in Singapore on the 28th/29th October 2014

    The presentation will be given by Mr Rodney Bromfield, a senior director of Hales Water Turbines Ltd and the subject matter of the presentation will be :

   THE ECOMOMIES OF VAW TURBINES IN LOW VELOCITY WATER FLOWS.

A Vertical Axis Water Turbines (VAWT) has been developed by Hales Water Turbines Ltd and Kingston University. It can be used in tidal streams, ocean currents, and “run of river” applications. Water flows as low as 0.8m/s can be utilised. The turbine uses 5 or 6 blades equi-spaced around the periphery of the top and bottom support discs. The investigation and research has shown that the moveable vertical blades have a power side and the blades present themselves in a drag efficient aspect on the return part of the rotation. The development of VAWT’s has concentrated on the ease and cost of production and present manufacturing methods have shown this to be the case. Compared to other energy extraction devices the cost per kW/hour / year  shows that large economies can be realised. It was found that inshore positions where these devices could be placed have lower water flow velocities. This could lead to further economies in transmission distances. This has a greater importance to small and remote community needs. The inshore positioning and connections of these devices to onshore electrical grids were found to be economically viable. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been utilised to model low water velocities in venturi ducting and around the blades to compare the live water tank test results of VAWT’s.  In conclusion the paper will say that the robustness, ease of deployment, and advantageous placements of VAWT’s have the possibility of yielding an economic energy harvest.

Singapore State is actively research many forms of renewable energy and the tidal research is being headed up by the Nanyang Technological University.