Power from marine currents

This paper describes the rationale and the engineering approach adopted for the development of technology for converting the kinetic energy in marine currents for large-scale electricity generation. Although the basic principles involved are relatively straightforward and well understood, being similar to those of a wind turbine, a practical and cost-effective large-scale system designed to extract the kinetic energy of flowing water has yet to be developed. This paper describes the research and development being undertaken through an industrial consortium with the aim of achieving this goal for the first time, i.e. to achieve the world's first commercially viable systems for delivering power from marine currents.