World’s Largest Floating Tidal Power Plant Launched in Norway

Hydra Tidals floating tidal power plant, the Morild II, was launched on Tuesday the 23rd of November. The opening ceremony marks the start of the planned two-year trial period for testing and verification of the plant and the technology.

The tidal power plant has an installed effect of 1.5 MW, and the unique turbine blades of laminated wood with a diameter of 23 meters. Indications are that both of these variables qualify the Morild II to being the world’s largest floating power plant of its kind. – We know of no comparable floating tidal power plants in the world. There are smaller scale models that have been installed, but Morild II is a full-scale plant. The largest known turbine diameter of other power plants is 18 meters, and the largest installed power known to us is 1 MW. Thus we can imply with a fair amount of certainty that Morild II is the largest tidal power plant of its kind – says the CEO of Hydra Tidal, Eivind Nydal.

After a construction period of about two years, the plant was launched at sea in Harstad this fall, and then towed to Gimsoystraumen in Lofoten, where it is now anchored and connected to the local power grid. The Morild II is expected to supply power to the grid by the end of 2010.

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Posted by Tracey Smith on Nov 30 2010. Filed under Featured Articles, Ocean Power Technologies & Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.