Abstract-The potential of electric power generation from marine tidal currents is enormous. Tidal currents are being recognized as a resource to be exploited for the sustainable generation of electrical power. The high load factors resulting from the fluid properties and the predictable resource characteristics make marine currents particularly attractive for power generation and advantageous when compared to other renewable energies. Moreover, international treaties related to climate control have triggered resurgence in development of renewable ocean energy technology. Therefore, several demonstration projects in tidal power are scheduled to capture the tidal generated coastal currents. Regarding this emerging and promising area of research, this paper reviews marine tidal power fundamental concepts and main projects around the world. It also report issues regarding electrical generator topologies associated to tidal turbines. Moreover, attempts are made to highlight future issues so as to index some emerging technologies mainly according to relevant works that have been carried out on wind turbines and on ship propellers.Index Terms-Tidal current, marine technology, electric power generation, energy converter systems, state of the art.

This work was supported in part by Brest Métropole Océane (BMO), in part by the European Social Fund (ESF), and in part by the GDR SEEDS CNRS 2994 under the Internal Project HYDROLEInternational audienceThis paper deals with the experimental validation of a Matlab-Simulink simulation tool of marine current turbine (MCT) systems. The developed simulator is intended to be used as a sizing and site evaluation tool for MCT installations. For that purpose, the simulator is evaluated within the context of speed control of a permanent magnet synchronous generatorbased (PMSG) MCT. To increase the generated power, and therefore the efficiency of an MCT, a nonlinear controller has been proposed. PMSG has been already considered for similar applications, particularly wind turbine systems using mainly PI controllers. However, such kinds of controllers do not adequately handle some of tidal resource characteristics such as turbulence and swell effects. Moreover, PMSG parameter variations should be accounted for. Therefore, a robust nonlinear control strategy, namely second-order sliding mode control, is proposed. The proposed control strategy is inserted in the simulator that accounts for the resource and the marine turbine models. Simulations using tidal current data from Raz de Sein (Brittany, France) and experiments on a 7.5-kW real-time simulator are carried out for the validation of the simulator

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Abstract-This paper deals with the development of a Matlab-Simulink model of a marine current turbine system through the modeling of the resource and the rotor. The simulation model has two purposes: performances and dynamic loads evaluation in different operating conditions and control system development for turbine operation based on pitch and speed control. In this case, it is necessary to find a compromise between the simulation model accuracy and the control-loop computational speed. The blade element momentum (BEM) approach is then used for the turbine modeling. As the developed simulation model is intended to be used as a sizing and site evaluation tool for current turbine installations, it has been applied to evaluate the extractable power from the Raz de Sein (Brittany, France). Indeed, tidal current data from the Raz de Sein are used to run the simulation model over various flow regimes and yield the power capture with time.

Increasing concerns about the depletion of fossil resources and the issue of environment lead to a global need for producing more clean energy from renewable sources. Ocean is appreciated as a vast source of renewable energies. Considering marine renewable energies, it can be noticed that significant electrical power can be extracted from marine tidal currents. However, the power harnessed from marine tidal currents is highly fluctuant due to the swell effect and the periodicity of the tidal phenomenon. To improve the power quality and make the marine generation system more reliable, energy storage systems can play a crucial role. In this paper, an overview and the state of art of energy storage technologies are presented. Characteristics of various energy storage technologies are analyzed and compared for this particular application. The comparison shows that high-energy batteries like sodium-sulphur battery and flow battery are favorable for smoothing the long-period power fluctuation due to the tide phenomenon while supercapacitor and flywheel are more suitable for eliminating short-period power disturbances due to swell or turbulence phenomena.This means that hybrid storage technologies are needed for achieving optimal results in tidal marine current energy applications.

All-electric ships are now a standard offering for energy/propulsion systems in boats. In this context, integrating fuel cells (FCs) as power sources in hybrid energy systems can be an interesting solution because of their high efficiency and low emission. The energy management strategy for different power sources has a great influence on the fuel consumption, dynamic performance and service life of these power sources. This paper presents a hybrid FC/battery power system for a low power boat. The hybrid system consists of the association of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and battery bank. The mathematical models for the components of the hybrid system are presented. These models are implemented in Matlab/Simulink environment. Simulations allow analyzing the dynamic performance and power allocation according to a typical driving cycle. In this system, an efficient energy management system (EMS) based on operation states is proposed. This EMS strategy determines the operating point of each component of the system in order to maximize the system efficiency. Simulation results validate the adequacy of the hybrid power system and the proposed EMS for real ship driving cycles.

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International audienceEmerging technologies for marine current turbines are mainly related to works that have been carried out on wind turbines and ship propellers. It is then obvious that many electric generator topologies could be used for marine current turbines. As in the wind turbine context, doubly-fed induction generators and permanent magnet generators seem to be attractive solutions for harnessing the tidal current energy. In this paper, a comparative study between these two generator types is presented and fully analyzed in terms of generated power, maintenance, and operation constraints. This comparison is done for the Raz de Sein site (Brittany, France) using a multiphysics modeling simulation tool. This tool integrates, in a modular environment, the resource model, the turbine hydrodynamic model, and generator models. Experiments have also been carried out to confirm the simulation results