Tidal Turbine Power Take-off Accelerator -TIPA

Project description:

Unlike most other renewable sources of energy, tidal energy is predictable. This makes tidal energy attractive, despite being relatively expensive at this stage, and warrants further research and development in this industry.

Tidal current turbines harvest the kinetic energy from the tidal currents, in a similar manner to that of the wind turbines. This is likely to prove a more cost-effective solution, and have minimal effects on the local marine biodiversity compared to the tidal barrages. However, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from tidal current turbines is far higher compared to other sources of energy, and needs to be brought down significantly to make tidal energy generation an economically viable option. A major part of the cost of energy comes from the frequent and expensive maintenance exercises for the subsea equipment.

Faisal Wani, PhD candidate at TEL department (faculty of ME), is looking into ways of improving reliability of tidal turbine power take-off systems. He focuses on the electrical aspects of the drive train. His research includes design and analysis of robust generator and power electronic systems, with fewer failure modes and thus higher survivability.

Faisal does his PhD as a part of the TiPA (Tidal turbine power take-off accelerator) project, which is funded under EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. The project is led by Nova Innovation Limited (UK). Other academic and industrial partners include University of Edinburgh (UK), RWTH Aachen (Germany), Siemens (Uk), SKF (Germany) and WoodGroup (France).

For more information, see TIPA website. 

Contact information: Faisal Wani, F.M.Wani@tudelft.nl

Thesis Promotor : Dr. ir. Henk Polinder