Very cool wave energy conversion machine, from Ireland.
www.jospa.ie
Check out their videos, really inspirational for the Energy_Animal.
Showing posts with label wave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wave. Show all posts
26/04/2010
Jospa, the power of waves
Via Joss Fitzsimons.
Very cool wave energy conversion machine, from Ireland.
www.jospa.ie
Very cool wave energy conversion machine, from Ireland.
www.jospa.ie
12/04/2010
Energy_Animal video
Full report : https://sites.google.com/a/opensailing.net/www/labs/energy_animal/Energy_Animal001
Video on Facebook | Youtube | Vimeo | Dailymotion | download HD movie (160Mb .mov)
The Energy_Animal is a device that produces renewable energy from the wind, the sun, and the waves.
The Energy_Animal can produce energy is a variety of irregular weather conditions, producing a reliable output.
Mostly made of free recycled materials, attracting and concentrating marine life instead of repelling it.
One Energy_Animal can be part of an energy farm, or it can drift on its own.
It is going where there is more energy to be collected, or where energy is most needed.
It is cheap to build, the design of the Energy_Animal is open-source, so there can be many concurrent or merging versions of different Energy_Animals. There is no development time, generation after generation a better design is emerging.
The idea is to produce cheap reliable green energy evolutive devices for a rapidly changing world.
The Energy_Animal can produce energy is a variety of irregular weather conditions, producing a reliable output.
Mostly made of free recycled materials, attracting and concentrating marine life instead of repelling it.
One Energy_Animal can be part of an energy farm, or it can drift on its own.
It is going where there is more energy to be collected, or where energy is most needed.
It is cheap to build, the design of the Energy_Animal is open-source, so there can be many concurrent or merging versions of different Energy_Animals. There is no development time, generation after generation a better design is emerging.
The idea is to produce cheap reliable green energy evolutive devices for a rapidly changing world.
Concept characteristics of Energy_Animal001
- Hybrid renewable energy
- Recycled materials
- Probiotic Impact
- Distributed Intelligence
- Lightweight & Reconfigurable
- Open-Source & Evolutionary
Credits
Design : Cesar Harada, Open_Sailing, Royal College of Art, Design InteractionsFilm : Antonia Nottebohm, University of Munich, 2010
Science : Dr. Heller, Prof. Chaplin, Southampton University
Thanks to : Jessica Spurrell, Soumik Sengupta, Aga Wypychowska,
Fiona Raby, Anthony Dunne, Tim Olden, Vamessa Rolf, Helen Bailey, Jennifer Indovina.
Commissioned by :
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical sciences Research Council).
NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).
Design Interactions, RCA (Royal College of Art), London.
http://opensailing.net http://energyanimal.org
17/03/2010
Very nice collection of pictures about wave power researches :
http://science.gallery.youngester.com/2009/06/renewable-energy-from-ocean.html
Power is currently being harvested from the ocean in two different ways:
There are three basic ways to tap the ocean for its energy. We can use the ocean's waves, we can use the ocean's high and low tides, or we can use temperature differences in the water. Let's take a look at each.
Wave Energy
Kinetic energy (movement) exists in the moving waves of the ocean. That energy can be used to power a turbine. In this simple example, to the right, the wave rises into a chamber. The rising water forces the air out of the chamber. The moving air spins a turbine which can turn a generator.
When the wave goes down, air flows through the turbine and back into the chamber through doors that are normally closed.
This is only one type of wave-energy system. Others actually use the up and down motion of the wave to power a piston that moves up and down inside a cylinder. That piston can also turn a generator.
Most wave-energy systems are very small. But, they can be used to power a warning buoy or a small light house.
Tidal Energy
Pictures of La Rance Tidal Station Another form of ocean energy is called tidal energy. When tides comes into the shore, they can be trapped in reservoirs behind dams. Then when the tide drops, the water behind the dam can be let out just like in a regular hydroelectric power plant.
Tidal energy has been used since about the 11th Century, when small dams were built along ocean estuaries and small streams. the tidal water behind these dams was used to turn water wheels to mill grains.
In order for tidal energy to work well, you need large increases in tides. An increase of at least 16 feet between low tide to high tide is needed. There are only a few places where this tide change occurs around the earth. Some power plants are already operating using this idea. One plant in France makes enough energy from tides (240 megawatts) to power 240,000 homes.
This facility is called the La Rance Station in France. It began making electricity in 1966. It produces about one fifth of a regular nuclear or coal-fired power plant. It is more than 10 times the power of the next largest tidal station in the world, the 17 megawatt Canadian Annapolis station.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
The idea is not new. Using the temperature of water to make energy actually dates back to 1881 when a French Engineer by the name of Jacques D'Arsonval first thought of OTEC. The final ocean energy idea uses temperature differences in the ocean. If you ever went swimming in the ocean and dove deep below the surface, you would have noticed that the water gets colder the deeper you go. It's warmer on the surface because sunlight warms the water. But below the surface, the ocean gets very cold. That's why scuba divers wear wet suits when they dive down deep. Their wet suits trapped their body heat to keep them warm.
Power plants can be built that use this difference in temperature to make energy. A difference of at least 38 degrees Fahrenheit is needed between the warmer surface water and the colder deep ocean water.
Advantages of Tidal and Wave Generators
Today’s most promising water-based generators operate something like floating wind turbines anchored to the sea floor. Moving ocean water creates pressure that turns a hydraulic turbine, which in turn is linked to a generator that converts the hydraulic energy into electricity.
Ocean-powered generators have important advantages over both conventional forms of power and other renewable energy alternatives, such as wind and solar power. Ocean-generated energy is:
* Clean. Unlike coal, oil, or nuclear energy, the electricity produced by tidal or wave generators is emission free. Powering houses with ocean-generated electricity could potentially save millions of tons of carbon emissions each year.
* Unobtrusive. Ocean-borne generators ride the waves without protruding above the water’s surface, so they don’t obstruct views the way today’s huge wind turbines can.
* Consistent. Waves and tidal movements are predictable and occur all year round, so ocean generators aren’t affected by clouds or seasonal changes as solar collectors are.
Moving from Experimental Technology to Commercial Reality
Wave and tidal generators are currently in advanced phases of testing or initial commercial operation in several locations around the world. A tidal current generator developed by Sea Generation Ltd. began operating in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough in June, 2007, with a potential capacity of 1.2 megawatts. A wave farm consisting of three generators built by Pelamis Wave Power opened off Portugal in September, 2008. Operating at full capacity, the farm can generate enough electricity to power more than 1,500 houses. Both of those projects, though, have been dogged by technical problems caused by the harsh ocean environment.
British company Checkmate Seaenergy developed a new, simpler generator, the Anaconda Wave Energy Converter, to help combat breakdowns caused by the corrosive effects of seawater. While the Seagen and Pelamis turbines are primarily made of metal, the Anaconda is made mainly from fabric and rubber.
A small-scale Anaconda generator has just completed testing in a tank in Hampshire, England. If the tests prove successful, larger versions of the power generator will be tested in the ocean. Checkmate Seaenergy, the Anaconda’s maker, hopes to have wave generators in commercial production by 2014.
Future Prospects for Renewable Energy from the Ocean
Many governments have set ambitious targets for generating electricity from renewable sources. The European Union plans to generate 20% of its electricity from renewables by the year 2020. The United States recently set a target of generating 25% of all electricity renewably by 2025.
As with many new technologies, getting the funding to overcome technical problems and test new installations is one of the major obstacles standing between ocean-power generation and commercial success. Even in a difficult economic climate, the new water-powered generators are promising enough that governments and private companies are pressing ahead with plans to generate a small but significant part of their electricity needs from the ocean.
Generating technologies for deriving electrical power from the ocean include tidal power, wave power, ocean thermal energy conversion, ocean currents, ocean winds and salinity gradients. Of these, the three most well-developed technologies are tidal power, wave power and ocean thermal energy conversion. Tidal power requires large tidal differences which, in the U.S., occur only in Maine and Alaska. Ocean thermal energy conversion is limited to tropical regions, such as Hawaii, and to a portion of the Atlantic coast. Wave energy has a more general application, with potential along the California coast. The western coastline has the highest wave potential in the U.S.; in California, the greatest potential is along the northern coast.
Energy
California has more than 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) of coastline, and the combined average annual deep water wave power flux is over 37,000 megawatts (MW) of which an upper limit of about 20 percent could be converted into electricity. This is sufficient for about 23 percent of California's current electricity consumption. However, economics, environmental impacts, land-use and grid interconnection constraints will likely impose further limits to how much of the resource can be extracted. Although technology is still at a relatively immature pilot project stage, economic projections indicate that ocean energy could become cost-competitive over the long-term.
Current Pilot Projects
In the spring of 2009, the Sonoma County Water District applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for three wave project preliminary permits. The projects will be located in state waters offshore Del Mar Landing (the northwestern portion of the county) and off Fort Ross further to the south. Each of the three projects would begin as pilots in the two to five megawatt (MW) range, could potentially expand to commercial facilities in the 40-200 MW range, and would include substations, transmission lines, appurtenant facilities, and submersible electric cables.
With these applications, the total number of FERC permits and applications for wave and tidal projects in California waters totals twelve.
Wave Energy
Wave energy conversion takes advantage of the ocean waves caused primarily by interaction of winds with the ocean surface. Wave energy is an irregular and oscillating low-frequency energy source that must be converted to a 60-Hertz frequency before it can be added to the electric utility grid.
Although many wave energy devices have been invented, only a small proportion have been tested and evaluated. Furthermore, only a few have been tested at sea, in ocean waves, rather than in artificial wave tanks.
As of the mid-1990s, there were more than 12 generic types of wave energy systems. Some systems extract energy from surface waves. Others extract energy from pressure fluctuations below the water surface or from the full wave. Some systems are fixed in position and let waves pass by them, while others follow the waves and move with them. Some systems concentrate and focus waves, which increases their height and their potential for conversion to electrical energy.
A wave energy converter may be placed in the ocean in various possible situations and locations. It may be floating or submerged completely in the sea offshore or it may be located on the shore or on the sea bed in relatively shallow water. A converter on the sea bed may be completely submerged, it may extend above the sea surface, or it may be a converter system placed on an offshore platform. Apart from wave-powered navigation buoys, however, most of the prototypes have been placed at or near the shore
The visual impact of a wave energy conversion facility depends on the type of device as well as its distance from shore. In general, a floating buoy system or an offshore platform placed many kilometers from land is not likely to have much visual impact (nor will a submerged system). Onshore facilities and offshore platforms in shallow water could, however, change the visual landscape from one of natural scenery to industrial
The incidence of wave power at deep ocean sites is three to eight times the wave power at adjacent coastal sites. The cost, however, of electricity transmission from deep ocean sites is prohibitively high. Wave power densities in California's coastal waters are sufficient to produce between seven and 17 megawatts (MW) per mile of coastline
According to the European Union, "Among the different converters capable of exploiting wave power, the most advanced is unquestionably the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter, a kind of "undulating sea serpent" developed by Ocean Power Delivery. This technology is the object of a commercial contract for installation of a farm in Portugal. In 2007, three machines, with a total capacity of 2.25 megawatts (MW(, are in installation phase, and should be joined by 27 others in the years to come. Another 5 MW project is being studied for England this time."
None of these plants are located in California, although economic feasibility studies have been performed for a 30 MW wave converter to be located at Half Moon Bay. Additional smaller projects have been discussed at Fort Bragg, San Francisco and Avila Beach. There are currently no firm plans to deploy any of these projects
As of the mid-1990s, wave energy conversion was not commercially available in the United States. The technology was in the early stages of development and was not expected to be available within the near future due to limited research and lack of federal funding. Research and development efforts are being sponsored by government agencies in Europe and Scandinavia
Many research and development goals remain to be accomplished, including cost reduction, efficiency and reliability improvements, identification of suitable sites in California, interconnection with the utility grid, better understanding of the impacts of the technology on marine life and the shoreline. Also essential is a demonstration of the ability of the equipment to survive the salinity and pressure environments of the ocean as well as weather effects over the life of the facility
Permitting Issues. Some of the issues that may be associated with permitting an ocean wave energy conversion facility include:
* Disturbance or destruction of marine life (including changes in the distribution and types of marine life near the shore)
* Possible threat to navigation from collisions due to the low profile of the wave energy devices above the water, making them undetectable either by direct sighting or by radar. Also possible is the interference of mooring and anchorage lines with commercial and sport-fishing.
* Degradation of scenic ocean front views from wave energy devices located near or on the shore, and from onshore overhead electric transmission lines
Tidal Energy
Another form of ocean energy is called tidal energy. When tides comes into the shore, they can be trapped in reservoirs behind dams. Then when the tide drops, the water behind the dam can be let out just like in a regular hydroelectric power plant.
Tidal energy has been used since about the 11th Century, when small dams were built along ocean estuaries and small streams. the tidal water behind these dams was used to turn water wheels to mill grains.
In order for tidal energy to work well, you need relateivel large increases in tides. An increase of at least 16 feet between low tide to high tide is generally needed. There are only a few places where this tide change occurs around the earth. Some power plants are already operating using this idea.
According to the European Union:
"Ninty percent of today's worldwide ocean energy production is represented by a single site: the La Rance Tidal Power Plant (240 MW) that was commissioned in 1966. This type of installation has remained unique in the world and has only been reproduced at much smaller capacities in Canada (20 MW), China (5 MW) and Russia (0.4 MW).
"This type of project was abandoned for many years because of very high initial investment costs as well as the strong local impact that results from it. However, the present economic situation has encouraged South Korea to build a 260 MW dam closing off Sihwa Lake, which is set to be commissioned in 2009. Lighter new techniques, like hydro turbines, are being developed today to harness ocean currents. The leader in this field, the British company, Marine Current Turbine (MCT), should install 1.2MW in Northern Ireland following its 300 kW pilot project in Bristol Bay."
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
The idea of using the temperature of water to make energy actually dates back to 1881 when a French Engineer by the name of Jacques D'Arsonval first thought of OTEC. The final ocean energy idea uses temperature differences in the ocean. If you ever went swimming in the ocean and dove deep below the surface, you would have noticed that the water gets colder the deeper you go. It's warmer on the surface because sunlight warms the water. But below the surface, the ocean gets very cold. That's why scuba divers wear wet suits when they dive down deep. Their wet suits trapped their body heat to keep them warm.
Power plants can be built that use this difference in temperature to make energy. A difference of at least 38 degrees Fahrenheit is needed between the warmer surface water and the colder deep ocean water. The cold ocean water can also be used to cooling buildings, and desalinated water is often a by-product.
05/03/2010
Either submarine or above the water.
I just recived feedback from someone with a lot of sailing experience about our design, spot on. Thanks dear Elliot Siemon.
The red flag to me is the low profile - quite idyllic, lily pad-ish, but not only will the entire colony will be swamped in the most average gale it will be extremely difficult to keep in one location or move where you want to go.
Two possibilities: either go more submarine, a few feet below the surface or higher, like use hulls of ships connected via stand-off flexible struts. Ship hulls can be oriented in one direction so that when you need to move, it will be possible to do so, either by sail or by fuel derived from waste. That parachute would be difficult to make work; winds often are inconsistent and it would be difficult to keep airborne and/or the prevailing winds might not be blowing in the direction you need to go. Old ship hulls might not be as idyllic, but more sea worthy; the best thing might be sailing ships, because they are already rigged; the decks can be modified to be flat and more usable for farming and easier to get around on; between the hulls would be passage ramps, and of course there will have to be a sturdy fence around all perimeters.
There is a news report of heavy storm waves breaking the windows of a large cruise ship and killing two passengers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35706695/
The red flag to me is the low profile - quite idyllic, lily pad-ish, but not only will the entire colony will be swamped in the most average gale it will be extremely difficult to keep in one location or move where you want to go.Two possibilities: either go more submarine, a few feet below the surface or higher, like use hulls of ships connected via stand-off flexible struts. Ship hulls can be oriented in one direction so that when you need to move, it will be possible to do so, either by sail or by fuel derived from waste. That parachute would be difficult to make work; winds often are inconsistent and it would be difficult to keep airborne and/or the prevailing winds might not be blowing in the direction you need to go. Old ship hulls might not be as idyllic, but more sea worthy; the best thing might be sailing ships, because they are already rigged; the decks can be modified to be flat and more usable for farming and easier to get around on; between the hulls would be passage ramps, and of course there will have to be a sturdy fence around all perimeters.
There is a news report of heavy storm waves breaking the windows of a large cruise ship and killing two passengers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35706695/
30/01/2010
Open_Sailing documentary
Hello, I'm Antonia Nottebohm, I am a film maker from Munich living in Barcelona now doing a documentary on Open_Sailing. Yesterday, we were in the towing tank in Southampton University, testing Anaconda new principles... video coming soon!!!
08/01/2010
Energy_Animal_Anaconda1 presentation proposal
7 m long presentation. 3 computer screens + 3 headphones
1 main prototype + 5 small annex objects
Cesar Harada, Valentin Heller, Jessica Spurrel, Design Interactions Royal College of Art, Southampton University. EPSCR, NESTA, Checkmate, Open_Sailing, 2010.
cesarharada.com, opensailing.net, soton.ac.uk, bulgewave.com, checkmateuk.com, epsrc.ac.uk, nesta.org.uk, rca.ac.uk
21/12/2009
Very large floating structure
amazing pdf here (8.8 mb): 20091222very large floating structures. pdf>
Also check the Wikipedia article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_large_floating_structure
That's where we are going, with many little modules, pre-brocken structure.
Some other links :
http://www.jtc.gov.sg/resources/archiveperiscope/periscope_2008_04/focus/article03.htm
Also check the Wikipedia article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_large_floating_structure
That's where we are going, with many little modules, pre-brocken structure.
Some other links :
http://www.jtc.gov.sg/resources/archiveperiscope/periscope_2008_04/focus/article03.htm
12/12/2009
Energy_Animal update
So here's an update by Gerard Rallo and Antonio Carvalho Fernandes, nice 3D renders ! Original .3DS file 1 | Original .3DS file 2 | original images
So the Energy_Animal now is more modular, in order to be able to upgrade and maitain it part by part, without having to change the entire thing.
This Energy_Animal is placed on little legs to be usable on land too.
And this fantastic presentation by Antonio Carvalho Fernandes.
09/12/2009
New drive to harness wave power
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8400441.stm
In a bleakly beautiful island landscape, some strange new sights are emerging.
In the turbulent waters off the shores of Orkney, in the far north of Scotland, an array of bizarre machines is being deployed in a drive to harness the power of the sea.
The European Marine Energy Centre at Stromness is playing host to nearly a dozen experimental devices designed to capture the energy of the tides and the waves.
It is too early to tell if any of them will work on a large scale or ever succeed commercially.
But during lucky breaks in Orkney's fearsome winter weather, I got the chance to see two of the devices in action.
There is the "Oyster", a giant flap twice the height of a double-decker bus which swings back and forth with the waves.
Every time the flap moves, the action compresses hydraulic pumps which force water through a pipe to the shore where it drives a generator.
As we approach through a heavy swell, the bright yellow top of the flap rears up above the surface of the sea before being plunged back down by the next wave.
The machine is the work of the Scottish firm Aquamarine Power. Operations manager Frances Tierney, on board with us, says that its first few weeks have proved it can work.
"It was quite nerve-wracking installing it but we're really pleased with how the Oyster has performed so far."
The company's hope is to set up "farms" of Oysters, with 2MW of electricity being generated for every three machines, according to company officials.
'Huge potential'
Matthias Haag, Aquamarine's chief operating officer, told me that, in theory, 1,500 Oysters could yield one gigawatt (1GW) of electricity - about the output of a typical fossil fuel power station.
"Our studies have identified sites where the waves mean we could generate 5GW of electricity - it's got huge potential."
Another approach is to harness the power of the tides. Between Orkney and the Scottish mainland, the Pentland Firth sees high-speed currents surging from the Atlantic to the North Sea and back again.
These can reach more than eight knots - nearly 10 miles per hour - and the flows last six hours in each direction.
In a notoriously fast-flowing channel known as the Fall of Warness, the Irish firm OpenHydro has deployed an enormous undersea turbine - a fan with a diameter of 6m.
Fitted between black stilts, this huge device sits near the sea-bed right in the path of the currents.
As the waters surge, the massive blades start spinning and drive a generating system fitted within the machine's frame. The electricity is then piped ashore.
During our visit, the turbine is lifted out of the sea so we can film it. Rising slowly from the choppy grey waters, it looks like something from a Bond film.
Operations manager Sue Barr tells me that this is the company's fourth version of the turbine. The plan is for a 10m-diameter device which could generate 1MW of power.
"We're great fans of all forms of renewable energy but tidal is the only one that's predictable. We predict it with the sun and the moon - that's a very persuasive argument for investment."
Winners and losers
Other marine schemes involve systems of underwater propellers to spin in the tides or giant "snakes" whose joints move with the waves and generate power.
There is no doubting the ambition. But this is a watery, green equivalent to the start of the steam age: lots of clever ideas but the inevitability that there will be winners and losers.
The technologies are in their infancy, the costs at this stage are very high and still unknown are the practical implications of deploying hundreds or thousands of machines at sea.
And unresolved are the costly and controversial challenges of having to run new cables into the National Grid and then onto major population centres.
Neil Kermode of the European Marine Energy Centre is keen to be realistic about the prospects and not to hype expectations.
State funding, relatively meagre until now, is being increased and private funds are being raised too.
"We're at the stage of needing to see which of these technologies works and whether they can be scaled up. That requires steady investment.
"Look what the Danes did with wind: investments year after year paid off and now they earn billions in exports.
"There is huge potential - absolutely huge amounts of energy out there - in fact we don't know how much but it is epic."
Mr Kermode's concern is that funding remains consistent so that the different systems can be developed - and given a chance to prove themselves - in the UK.
"There is an absolute risk that we could fail to develop the technology that gets the energy out of the sea.
"If we're not careful we could end up buying this technology from overseas later on, which would be silly."
With its island heritage and experience of North Sea oil and gas, Britain should be ideally placed to pioneer marine energy.
As we leave in the dark of mid-afternoon, a storm drives rain across the runway. I think of the waves pounding the brave new machines out at sea.
Are they the first foot-soldiers of an impending energy revolution or costly forays into the deep that may never really succeed? The next few years will tell.
By David Shukman
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Advertisement
Meet green monsters of the deep
In the turbulent waters off the shores of Orkney, in the far north of Scotland, an array of bizarre machines is being deployed in a drive to harness the power of the sea.
The European Marine Energy Centre at Stromness is playing host to nearly a dozen experimental devices designed to capture the energy of the tides and the waves.
It is too early to tell if any of them will work on a large scale or ever succeed commercially.
But during lucky breaks in Orkney's fearsome winter weather, I got the chance to see two of the devices in action.
There is the "Oyster", a giant flap twice the height of a double-decker bus which swings back and forth with the waves.
 |  There is huge potential - absolutely huge amounts of energy out there  Neil Kermode European Marine Energy Centre |
As we approach through a heavy swell, the bright yellow top of the flap rears up above the surface of the sea before being plunged back down by the next wave.
The machine is the work of the Scottish firm Aquamarine Power. Operations manager Frances Tierney, on board with us, says that its first few weeks have proved it can work.
"It was quite nerve-wracking installing it but we're really pleased with how the Oyster has performed so far."
The company's hope is to set up "farms" of Oysters, with 2MW of electricity being generated for every three machines, according to company officials.
'Huge potential'
Matthias Haag, Aquamarine's chief operating officer, told me that, in theory, 1,500 Oysters could yield one gigawatt (1GW) of electricity - about the output of a typical fossil fuel power station.
"Our studies have identified sites where the waves mean we could generate 5GW of electricity - it's got huge potential."
Another approach is to harness the power of the tides. Between Orkney and the Scottish mainland, the Pentland Firth sees high-speed currents surging from the Atlantic to the North Sea and back again.
These can reach more than eight knots - nearly 10 miles per hour - and the flows last six hours in each direction.
In a notoriously fast-flowing channel known as the Fall of Warness, the Irish firm OpenHydro has deployed an enormous undersea turbine - a fan with a diameter of 6m.
The Oyster wave power machine swings back and forth with the waves
Fitted between black stilts, this huge device sits near the sea-bed right in the path of the currents.
As the waters surge, the massive blades start spinning and drive a generating system fitted within the machine's frame. The electricity is then piped ashore.
During our visit, the turbine is lifted out of the sea so we can film it. Rising slowly from the choppy grey waters, it looks like something from a Bond film.
Operations manager Sue Barr tells me that this is the company's fourth version of the turbine. The plan is for a 10m-diameter device which could generate 1MW of power.
"We're great fans of all forms of renewable energy but tidal is the only one that's predictable. We predict it with the sun and the moon - that's a very persuasive argument for investment."
Winners and losers
Other marine schemes involve systems of underwater propellers to spin in the tides or giant "snakes" whose joints move with the waves and generate power.
There is no doubting the ambition. But this is a watery, green equivalent to the start of the steam age: lots of clever ideas but the inevitability that there will be winners and losers.
The technologies are in their infancy, the costs at this stage are very high and still unknown are the practical implications of deploying hundreds or thousands of machines at sea.
 There are many ides for capturing the power of tides and waves |
Neil Kermode of the European Marine Energy Centre is keen to be realistic about the prospects and not to hype expectations.
State funding, relatively meagre until now, is being increased and private funds are being raised too.
"We're at the stage of needing to see which of these technologies works and whether they can be scaled up. That requires steady investment.
"Look what the Danes did with wind: investments year after year paid off and now they earn billions in exports.
"There is huge potential - absolutely huge amounts of energy out there - in fact we don't know how much but it is epic."
Mr Kermode's concern is that funding remains consistent so that the different systems can be developed - and given a chance to prove themselves - in the UK.
"There is an absolute risk that we could fail to develop the technology that gets the energy out of the sea.
"If we're not careful we could end up buying this technology from overseas later on, which would be silly."
With its island heritage and experience of North Sea oil and gas, Britain should be ideally placed to pioneer marine energy.
As we leave in the dark of mid-afternoon, a storm drives rain across the runway. I think of the waves pounding the brave new machines out at sea.
Are they the first foot-soldiers of an impending energy revolution or costly forays into the deep that may never really succeed? The next few years will tell.
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