28-ton, 1.2-megawatt tidal kite is now exporting power to the grid
newatlas.com
Minesto's fully operational Dragon 12 looks like some sort of futuristic military drone – but it behaves remarkably like a kite underwater. It uses lift generated by tidal flows to fly patterns faster than the currents, harvesting renewable energy.

A 28-ton, 1.2 MW tidal kite is now exporting power to the grid::undefined

  • @blackfireEnglish
    20•9 months ago

    I guess these would be more useful in the far north and far south. How do they sound under the water and does it affect marine life?

    • @[email protected]English
      35•9 months ago

      Tons of studies going on! Mostly data collection on the turbines themselves and observing animal patterns, but still waiting on more analysis.

      They’re not seeing marine life getting pulled into the turbines.

      The sound issue concern isn’t about carry distance, but creating a sound wall or causing confusion especially for echolocation animals. But the concerns are all currently speculative, all unknowns right now. But tons of studies.

      • @blackfireEnglish
        1•9 months ago

        Yeah the sound wall is what I meant, didnt know there was a term for it. Ive heard some other stationary under water turbine designs are incredibly loud and really affect the surrounding life.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•9 months ago

      I wouldn’t expect much sound, water is very dense so only very low frequencies can effectively travel through it. From the pictures, this thing doesn’t seem big enough to make much of an impact in that regard. As for marine life, it would probably be a matter of how fast it travels underwater, which the article unfortunately doesn’t mention.