28-ton, 1.2-megawatt tidal kite is now exporting power to the grid

Since the number 1.2MW didn&#x27;t mean much to me, modern on-shore wind turbines seem to supply 3-4MW and offshore ones 8 - 12MW.<p>But this seems a lot easier to transport and install compared to cranes and the nightmare of navigating turbine blades on trucks through places. And if these hold up to water and don&#x27;t cause too many problems for wildlife, there would be a lot less discussions about these &quot;messing up my skyline&quot;, while tapping a new source of energy.<p>Quite interesting and cool.

More renewable is good.. but there is always one fear in my crazy mind about these: This isn&#x27;t actually renewable but taking energy out of a huge reservoir (Same for solar if pea counting, but solar is really endless until the end of the solar system).. and if we&#x27;d scale it massively the result could be another catastrophe. (Same btw. with geothermal?).<p>(Btw.. I maybe got tidal wrong, so if it is just taking energy from waves via wind this counts as endless solar. Still, consider systems which would really break the tides and take energy out of the earth&lt;=&gt;moon system).<p>The answer to this fear is that this reservoirs are so massive they are quasi endless in regard to what we ever could take out? It is hard to find numbers for these crazy thoughts :)

The sea is a harsh environment, but the energy it contains, in the form of waves (basically concentrated wind) and tides is enormous (partly thanks to the density of water.)<p>Of course, like with all renewable, location matters. But there are lots of places with strong tides, and lots of places with reliable waves.<p>Harvesting this abundant energy at scale, with reasonable maintenence costs will be the next breakthrough in green energy.

While 28 tonnes appears to be a lot of material for generating 1.2MW of energy, it compares favourably when you look at wind turbines. How often does this need maintenance though?

For those wondering how they transfer the generated energy from the tidal kite to the shore:<p>&gt; The turbine shaft turns the [onboard] generator which outputs electricity to the grid via a power cable in the tether and a seabed umbilical to the shore.

Too good to be true?<p>I assume this does no harm to fish. And electricity can be easily transported back to land ( there was no mention of how this was done in the video ). Since it is portable, small, fits into a 40ft Container. And you could mass manufacture these, ship it with container. There isn&#x27;t another manufacturing problem and transportation problem like wind turbine.<p>If Yes. You could have tens of thousands of these in north of Scotland of or seas around England.<p>Surely there has to be a catch somewhere. Right?

How on earth can such a small device generate so much energy? Wouldn&#x27;t 1.2 MW of power make it very brittle just like a real kite? Or else why not scale it up and make one 100 times larger that generates 120 MW of power? Since tidal currents are much more reliable (I think) than offshore wind it almost seem to good to be true. There has to be a catch.

Definitely seems more feasible than a lot of crazy energy ideas! E.g. I think this makes more sense than the air versions because you don&#x27;t have problems launching&#x2F;landing or when the wind stops.<p>Probably the biggest issues I could imagine are maintenance and wildlife. They might be minor issues though. Also in most of the world (maybe not the Faroe Islands) this has to compete with solar &amp; batteries which are getting cheaper and cheaper. If this is more than £5-10m then I think solar and batteries would be a much better option in most of the world.

I was hoping for some sort of diagram or animation about what this thing is set up and does underwater and how this movement gets converted to electricity. Does anybody know?

The long-term projected levelized cost of the generated electricity really has to hit that $54&#x2F;MWh target, otherwise the economics won&#x27;t work - unless you absolutely must use some form of offshore energy production, then I guess it&#x27;s an interesting niche application.<p>It will be interesting to see.

Interesting! Given the small amount of power relative to the total amount in the tides (I&#x27;ve seen an estimate of 3.7TW), this doesn&#x27;t make a big difference to the Earth&#x2F;Moon gravitational system, but I&#x27;m curious how this will affect the Moon&#x27;s orbit (yes, I know it&#x27;s millimeters or meters). For example, the Moon&#x27;s orbit is increasing by stealing rotational energy from the Earth--i.e. Earth rotation slows down, Moon speeds up and orbital distance increases. Does this friction in the tidal system <i>reduce</i> the energy transfer to the Moon and therefore preserve Earth&#x27;s rotational energy, or just redirect that rotational energy into our power grid? I would guess it would have to be the latter...

For comparison, electricity was sold to the U.S. grid at about $48&#x2F;MWh in 2023. This is less than any of the cost projections mentioned in the article.<p>Howabout materials? It says this weighs 28 tons and makes 1.2 MW. That&#x27;s 21g&#x2F;W assuming a 100% capacity factor, no balance of plant, and assuming those are short tons. Compare to an iPhone 15, which consumes about 1W per 150g in use. That&#x27;s a materials intensity multiple (EROI estimate) of ~ 7. An average automobile on an average commute dissipates about 67kW, or 27g&#x2F;W for a multiple of ~ 1.

When the wind isn&#x27;t blowing, no wind generation. When the sun isn&#x27;t shining, no solar. So these guys come in with a &quot;gap&quot; filling idea of using tidal, yet their own marketing says this &quot;kite&quot; parks itself when there is no tidal flow. So how is this continuous power generation?

It’s just a matter of time before the orcas start playing spikeball with it, hopefully the team considered that.

Kinda reminescent of Makani, Google&#x2F;X flying kite-turbine-generator-thingies. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.company&#x2F;projects&#x2F;makani&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.company&#x2F;projects&#x2F;makani&#x2F;</a>

Reminds me of the the wind based KitePower that was shared here a month or 2 ago<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;spectrum.ieee.org&#x2F;micro-wind-power-kitepower" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;spectrum.ieee.org&#x2F;micro-wind-power-kitepower</a>

This would be great in the <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Skookumchuck_Narrows" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Skookumchuck_Narrows</a>

I&#x27;m thinking loudly about three questions:<p>1. How does the maintenance fee and replacement fee look like, per year?<p>2. Is it possible to develop a home use version?<p>3. I assume the tide is going to be consistent, but need to dig deeper into this.

What happens when a 28 ton kite slams into a whale or shark?

Neat, I just didn&#x27;t get why they designed it this way vs a regular turbine at the floor of the ocean? if anybody knows

The Earth’s angular momentum is the exact opposite of renewable. It’s even less renewable than so-called fossil fuels.

We should probably just do nuclear.

Does it present a navigation hazard?