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OFFSHORE ENGINEERING
Researchers believe they have found a cost-effective way to harness energy from a major renewable resource: the movement of the sea. They plan to generate electricity from tides and ocean currents using underwater turbines mounted on steel monopiles.
The idea of using marine turbines to generate electricity is not new. The problem has always been how to keep the turbines in place, says Peter Fraenkel, the technical director of Marine Current Turbines Ltd., based in Eversley, United Kingdom. Researchers previously considered several options, such as attaching a turbine to a prefabricated concrete base that could be sunk and weighted with rock fill. In an early test system in Scotland on Loch Linnhe, Fraenkel attached a 15 kW turbine to a floating raft anchored to the bottom, but the moorings kept shifting with the tides, requiring frequent maintenance.
Inspired by the success of the much taller offshore wind turbines, Fraenkel and his...