Carbon Trust (UK) identified that as the marine energy industry is moving toward
commercialisation stage (~2020), there is a need to lower cost of generation by improving
reliability of tidal energy devices, achieving lower installation, operation and maintenance
costs and lower manufacturing costs. Offshore wind turbines require on average 2 servicing
visits per year even though wind power is a mature technology. Given that access to
maintenance and retrieval of a tidal turbine is an order of magnitude more difficult than that of
an offshore wind turbine, it is therefore preferable to have a simpler but effective technology
in the former. Tidal Harness Ltd’s design philosophy is simplicity and with simplicity comes
greater reliability and lower CAPEX & OPEX. This project addresses an effective and
scalable tidal turbine with a direct-drive generator. This project aims to demonstrate the
effectiveness of such a tidal turbine in converting kinetic energy to electrical energy.