The Conceptual Design of a Tidal Power Plant in Taiwan

Abstract

Located on the northwestern of Taiwan, the Matsu archipelago is near mainland China and comprises four islands: Nangan, Beigan, Juguang, and Dongyin. The population of Matsu totals 11,196 and is chiefly concentrated on Nangan and Beigan. From 1971 to 2000, Matsu built five oil-fired power plants with a total installed capacity of 47 MW. However, the emissions and noise generated by the oil-fired power plant has caused damage to Matsu's environment, and the cost of fuel is high due to the long-distance shipping from Taiwan. Developing renewable energy in Matsu has therefore been a fervent topic for the Taiwan government, and tidal power is considered to be of the highest priority due to Matsu's large tidal range (4.29 m in average) and its semidiurnal tide. Moreover, the islands of Nangan and Beigan are composed of granite and have natural harbors, rendering them ideal places for coastal engineering of tidal power plants. This paper begins with a renewable energy reserves assessment in Matsu to determine the amount of tidal energy. Next, a tidal turbine type of the lowest cost is chosen, and then its dynamic characteristic, performance, and related design are analyzed. Finally, the coastal engineering condition was investigated, and a conceptual design for tidal power plant is proposed.

Numerical Analysis of Effects of Arms with Different Cross-Sections on Straight-Bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

“…In this example, the pressure-based tangential force in the x 2 direction takes negative values when the arm moves in the range from 80 • to 180 • in the azimuth. Figure B1 shows the azimuthal variation in the non-dimensional force coefficient defined by Equation (8) and the average calculated using Equation (9) at the cross-section of n = 30 of an arm of the airfoil arm rotor. In this example, the pressure-based tangential force in the x2 direction takes negative values when the arm moves in the range from 80° to 180° in the azimuth.…”

Assessment of the numerical and experimental performance of screw tidal turbines

“…The results are presented in Table 1. To calculate the power generation results for the modeled turbine, equation (5) was used with the speed and momentum data obtained from the numerical modeling.…”

“…Equation (5) indicates that energy is transferred from fluids to the blades (power transmitted by flow) via lift and drag forces and kinetic energy. Lift and drag forces are created by (1) friction force, (2) pressure changes on the surface of an airfoil, and (3) fluid momentum changes that exert force from fluids to the blades.…”

“…The authors used a three-dimensional model to determine the energy density in these waters and found that currents from waves higher than 50 m increase in some periods of the year (late winter to early fall and late summer to early fall). Tsai and Chen 5 developed a machine-based theory for power generation from tides in Taiwan’s Matsu archipelago. The gas and oil power plants in Matsu produce a total of 47 MW of electricity, but the pollutants emitted from these plants have degraded the environment.…”