Topic Introduction. What do I aim to answer?
Hi again.
As I already introduced you in my About page, I am pursuing a part-time PhD inside the Energy Technology group of the State University of Navarra. My tesis Directors are Dr. Mario Garcia Sanz, ARPA-E Program Director at the US Department of Energy and Professor at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department of Case Western Reserve University, and Dr. Pedro María Dieguez Elizondo, Full Professor at the Public University of Navarra.
My thesis wants to answer the question about whether Tidal Energy could be a viable option able to compete with the other renewable and non-renewable energy sources. It is a big question, but bigger are its consecuences if the answer is found to be possitive. From the research and designs I have made and analyse so far, it seems feasible to propose some improvements in the actual methodology of extraction of this type of energy in order to make it more efficient, and perhaps, economically viable.
1-What is Tidal Energy?
Tidal energy is the form of hydropower that converts the energy obtained from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity.
Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has the potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than the wind and the sun. Among sources of renewable energy, tidal energy has traditionally suffered from relatively high cost and limited availability of sites with sufficiently high tidal ranges or flow velocities, thus constricting its total availability. However, many recent technological developments and improvements, both in design (e.g. dynamic tidal power, tidal lagoons) and turbine technology (e.g. new axial turbines, cross flow turbines), indicate that the total availability of tidal power may be much higher than previously assumed and that economic and environmental costs may be brought down to competitive levels.
2-Which improvements do I propose?
I want to propose improvements both in the methodology and logistics used to extract the energy from the hydroturbines and in the design of the machine. Most designs are highly inefficient, since they are only able to exploit unidirectional flow, withouth taking into account the change from high to low tide. This can be greately improved.
3-Actors influenced by PhD
The actors that would be most influenced by my research would be all companies opperating inside the actual energy market, since a far more predictable energy source would be added to the already available resources, increasing the competitivity, but at the same time, reinforcing the world’s transition towards cleaner complementary energy sources.
If you have any doubt, I would be pleased to help you with it via Email or LinkedIn.
Until the next post!