Condition Monitoring for Tidal Stream Generator
Acronym: TidalSense
Funding body: European Commission
Status: Completed
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 fact that water is 800 times denser than air and the predictable and reliable nature of tides compared with the wind makes tidal energy particularly attractive for electric power generation. “TidalSense Demo” project will suppose the demonstration of the results obtained in TIDALSENSE project, in order to clear the pace of these technologies towards commercial maturity. The original project, TidalSense, “Development of a condition monitoring system for tidal stream generator structures” was submitted in the call FP7-SME-2008-1 and received the grant agreement number 232518. Tidalsense is a two year project sponsored by the European Commission under FP7 Research for the benefit of the SMEs, that started in September 2009 and will finish in 2011. The project aims to deliver a condition monitoring system for tidal stream energy conversion equipment. The new project, TIDALSENSE DEMO will comprise the industrialization of the developed sensors for monitoring elements manufactured using modern composite materials, such as fibre metal laminates, honeycombs, glass or carbon fibre reinforced plastics, the study of their feasibility as condition monitoring equipment in several tidal energy converters (TEC), including different ones to those used as reference for their design, and the sea trials of the system.