A Chinese tidal energy project qualifies as ‘world record’

The country’s first tidal energy demo project completed one year of operation

The country’s first tidal energy demo project completed one year of operation

On Xiushan Island in China’s Zhejiang Province, China’s first tidal power station was connected to the grid on May 25, 2017. Now, one year later, the station has generated over 800MWh of cumulative power and holds the record for the longest stable use of renewable energy, according to the project’s developer LHD. The previous record of tidal energy power generation was set in Britain with a four-month supply in 2015.

The modular generator, built by Hangzhou Lin Dong Ocean Energy Technology Co. Ltd, is set to run at 3.4MW capacity at full scale. The current set up of LHD’s modular tidal energy platform includes two of the 7 already installed turbines rated at 1MW total, each of them measuring 70-meter long and 30-meter wide. When all turbines are installed in November, the generating unit will have an annual power output of 6 MWh, enough to power 3,000 households each year. 

By December 2017, the amount of electricity accumulated by the plant reached 450 MWh, according to Ocean Energy Systems’ (OES) annual report. OES also informed of a 300kW horizontal-axis turbine – being developed by LHD and Blue Shark Power System (BSPS) – planned to be tested on the platform in 2018. According to Lin Dong, chief engineer and chair of the company, LHD aims at building a 15 MW or 20 MW power unit that can break even the cost, making the sustainable energy feasible. Lin is expecting foreign orders, with representatives from Canada and New Zealand showing their interest. 

Governmental policy

In 2017, the Chinese State Oceanic Administration released the ‘13th Five-Year Plan for Marine Renewable Energy (2016-2020)’, which sets out the key principles and specific actions for delivering upon the country’s potential in marine renewable energy. By 2020, China plans to build 4 marine renewable energy demonstration districts, increasing the total installed capacity of marine renewable energy to over 50MW in the following two years, as stated in the plan.

Source: Marine Energy