Singapore Eyes Tidal Power

Researchers from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will commence a survey on two sites next month, one off St John’s Island and another near Pulau Sebarok, to determine their potential for harnessing   tidal energy.

According to some previous estimation, tidal turbines deployed at these two locations could supply clean electricity to 6,700 households. Furthermore, current speeds are supposed to be about 1.2m to 3m per second. The research project will work on confirming this assessment by installing sensors on the seabed, which will collect information for a month and then the data collected there will serve researchers to predict current speeds in the long run.

“If you have data from one lunar month or 29.5 days, you can forecast the current every hour for the next year,” Eco-Business cites Michael Abundo from the Energy Research Institute at NTU.

The research project also involves scanning the seabed with a sonar to identify spots with steep slopes, where tidal turbines cannot be deployed.

The Energy Research Institute is carrying out this project within a larger plan to map all areas that hold the potential for development of offshore renewables.

Results of this survey will be known by the end of the year.

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Offshore WIND Staff, August 13, 2013; Image: Atlantis