HOW LARGE A HALES TURBINE TIDAL FENCE TO MATCH 10MW WIND TURBINE OUTPUT ?

     A REQUEST LAST WEEK FROM A FORMER OBSERVER OF TESTING OF THE HALES TIDAL STREAM TURBINE ON THE THAMES ,  AS ASKED WHAT WOULD BE THE SIZE OF A HALES TURBINE DEPLOYMENT, POSSIBLY IN A TIDAL FENCE MODULAR FORM, WITH A HOLLOW BALLASTED BASE ETC.

 PAST THIS INTERESTING QUESTION TO OUR  DIRECTOR  ROD BROMFIELD, WHO IS ALSO A SENIOR LECTURER AT THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AT KINGSTON UNIVERSITY, LONDON.

THE TIDAL FLOW WAS STATED AT 5 KNOTS (2.4 M/S) AT THE SITE.

THIS IS THE CONCLUSIONS:

Hales Turbines comparison

an interesting question!!

Firstly what does a 10MW wind turbine produce over a year?

 The KWh is nowhere near the 10,000kW x 365 x 24 hours. I would be very surprised that it produces 1/5 of that over a year.

So

10,000kW x 365 x 24 x 1/5 = 17,520,000 kWh (17,560 MWh) say.

The frontal area of the wind turbine (not including base and tower) is 21,124 m²

Anyways, using a 2m x 2m contra-rotating Hales Turbine with a 5 knot stream = 2.5m/s approx.from actual readings from tests/trials of the Hales:- 

2.5m/s produces 20kW approx per unit (2m x 2m size turbine)

Therefore 5,000 Hales devices = 20,000 m²of frontal area(similar size of area to the wind turbine).

20kW x 5,000 x 365 x 24 =876,000,000kWh (approx50 times more energy that of the wind turbine).

Therefore, only need 100 Hales Turbines to yield the same kWh of a 10MW ‘rated’ wind turbine.

So we need 100 Hales Turbines with a frontal area of 800 m²to produce the equivalent energy over a year:-

20kW x 100 x 365 x 24 = 17,520,000 kWh (17,520 MWh).

Easier to handle at 2m x 2m x 2m contra-rotating Hales turbine –deployment costs would be a fraction of that of a 80m bladed wind turbine.

Hales visual impactNILverses Wind turbine visual impact ?????

Thinking about the overall capture area of 2m high x (2m + 2m width) which would be 8 m² with venturi, and we wanted an equivalent energy /year of a 10MW wind turbine,

and if you stacked them 4 high (8m high) and require 100 units,

then we have 25 along the surface ( 25 x 4m =100m). 

This gives 8m( 4 high) x 25 x 4m (each turbine) = 800 m²