oversize load

We did this job last week. The load is a 160t tidal turbine. We had recovered it from the sea off Orkney (Islands north of Scotland) and took it to Peterhead near Aberdeen, Scotland and offloaded it onto the lorry (V8 Scania), using the ships crane. Even the small amount of swell in the harbour made this interesting. The c of g of the load is about 6m above the base of the transport frame. The final pic is of the position it was parked to start dismantling ready for onward road transport. Note the concrete blocks under the overhang at the sides. I did video it moving as I thought some people would not believe it had moved!
Rod

How do you go with the power lines Rod?

Cam, It only moved from one part of the docks to another before it was dismantled so no height restriction!
Rod

That'd be a nasty sort of thing to accidentally discover, when you were out scuba diving!!
It's bad enough keeping one eye open for vicious undersea predators that regard you as a snack .. without getting whacked by a humungous turbine blade, that you never saw coming!

G'day,

So what is the job of the turbine when it is in the water, or was this a recovery, as Iam not up to speed with turbines in the sea, hope it's not a silly question.

Charlie

charlie, as Roadster said, It's a tidal turbine.

It relies on the tide (both rise & ebb) to generate electricity...


But ISTBC.....

Hayseed,

Thanks, now it makes sence, what an interesting way to generate electricity, out of sight and I would guess low noise.
Just one more question anyone, do we have opertunities in Australia to do this type of generation or do we not have the right conditions.

Charlie

Charlie - Tidal turbines rely on tidal flow to generate electricity. They utilise water flow the same as wind turbines utilise air flow.
A newer idea being tried is shrouded turbines .. with the shroud improving efficiency and power output.

Tidal rise and fall is also being experimented with, to harness power .. however, the setup required to harvest the energy in this manner is expensive and large.
Many ideas of how to harness it, are still in the "prototype" stage. However, quite a number of projects are in construction around the world, using different ideas.
We do have a lot of opportunities to harvest tidal energy in Australia. The huge tides of the North are ideal for energy production.
However, the relative cheapness of coal and natural gas is a damper on any tidal energy projects being put into production here.

Tidal turbines .. www.reuk.co.uk/Tidal-Turbines.htm

Shrouded tidal turbine .. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrouded_tidal_turbine

A different style of tidal turbine .. tidalenergy.net.au/

A 1966-built tidal power station in France. This was an early, complex design, involving a tidal barrage and much infrastructure .. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rance_Tidal_Power_Station

Some wave energy power ideas .. www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/wave.htm

Tidal power systems .. www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/tidal.htm

More Tidal energy systems - Wikipedia .. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

Hi Ron,

Thanks very much for the info, I will go throught it as a matter of interest, thanks for going to all the trouble to seek out all that information.

Charlie

A little bit more info on this turbine: it is rated at 1Mw. I don't know how much electricity it has generated. It is a prototype and had been in the water for, I think, around six months in the Fall of Warness; a narrow channel between islands which has very strong tidal flows. There are a number of different experimental devices being installed in this area.
Harnessing tidal power is nothing new. Here is a link to Eling tidal mill: a 900 year old mill still producing flour.
Rod