Spain: Alstom to Showcase Its Solutions at Bilbao Marine Energy

Alstom presents from 15-19th April at the Bilbao Marine Energy Week -the largest European conference on marine energy- its state of the art technological solutions for renewable ocean energy.

This event, organized by the EVE (the Basque Energy Agency) will host a series of symposia, seminars and other activities related to marine energy, where Alstom experts in offshore wind and tidal energy will discuss issues related to the marine environment, renewable energy, as well as the latest technological advances and leading-edge projects taking place at this moment.

Haliade 150 6MW wind turbine

Alstom’s new-generation Haliade 150 offshore wind turbine will be one of the key technologies presented in the workshop dedicated to off-shore wind projects. This technology was developed to meet the severe challenges posed by the marine environment, and is one of the largest offshore wind turbines in the world: a 6 MW wind turbine which is simple, robust and efficient, to improve the competitiveness of offshore wind power. Simple: this wind turbine will function without a gear box (by direct drive) and is fitted with a permanent magnet generator, to reduce operating and maintenance costs. Robust: the Haliade 150 is fitted with Alstom PURE TORQUE® technology which protects the generator by diverting unwanted stresses from the wind safely to the turbine’s tower, thereby optimizing performance. Lastly, the Haliade 150 offers more efficiency with its 150 m rotor (the 73.50 m blades are the longest in the world) ensuring an improved load factor, and each turbine will be able to supply the equivalent of the electricity consumption of 5,000 households.

Ocean tides, an enormous potential power supply

In a Marine context, not only can the strong sea winds be used as an efficient, clean and renewable energy source. The strong ocean tides are also a source with enormous potential for large-scale power supply. During the 5th International Conference on Ocean Energy (18 April) Alstom will present its latest developments in tidal energy.

In January 2013, Alstom successfully installed and connected to grid its first 1MW tidal turbine. As part of the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) commissioned and co-funded ReDAPT (Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal) consortium project, the 1MW tidal turbine will be tested in different operational conditions in the Orkney Islands over an 18-month period.

With a rotor diameter of 18m, a twenty-two metres long nacelle and a weight of 150 tonnes, the tidal turbine has three pitchable blades. Buoyancy enables the turbine nacelle to be easily towed to and from the point of operation. This minimises installation and maintenance costs by avoiding the need for specialist vessels and divers and reduces the timeframe to install or retrieve the turbine. The unit operates, fully submerged at a water depth of 40 meters, by rotating to face the incoming tide at an optimal angle, to extract the maximum energy potential.

[mappress]

Press release, April 16, 2013; Image: alstom