Technology
The Swan technology
represents the best in class second generation tidal turbine with cost
of energy production at the core of the design. The system offers
unrivalled reliability and power capture and is characterised by its
simplicity. Only two primary moving parts and an innovative installation
platform provide a breakthrough in de-risking the tidal industry.
Although there are many synergies with tidal stream and
wind turbine technology, there is a fundamental difference. This is simply
that any maintenance requires going offshore. From something as small as
replacing a sensor to a complete overhaul, any activity will involve
operating in the offshore environment and consequently incurring offshore
costs.
The Swan team has addressed this from day one, using offshore engineers
to develop the concept. This gave rise to two primary design drivers:
• Minimising failure rates
• De-risking retrieval and deployment
Cost benefit analyses undertaken by Swan indicate that component number
reduction is the key to reducing failure rates. The turbine system has only
two primary moving parts, the rotor shaft and the yaw shaft. This maximises
power capture from different directions whilst providing unrivalled
reliability.
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