| Humber tidal project gets green light |
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| Monday, 07 April 2008 | |
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Secretary of State for Energy, John Hutton, has granted planning permission for a prototype tidal stream generator to be tested in the Humber Estuary near Grimsby. The model has been developed by Pulse Tidal with financial backing of £878,000 from the Government. When it is in the water the pulse generator will be capable of generating up to 0.15MW and will be one of the first tidal power machines to supply the national grid. If it is successful, it will be used to develop larger 1MW units which could be deployed in arrays each generating up to 100MW, enough to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes. The prototype will be positioned off the south bank of the Humber at Upper Burcom near Stallingborough. It will work by extracting energy from underwater currents in a manner similar to wind turbines. Energy from tidal flows will power a pair of straight horizontal hydrofoils, 11 metres in length, which will move up and down like a dolphin's tail.       |
