Ocean Trials Prove Solon™ the Most Efficient Tidal Current Turbine Ever Tested
Atlantis Resources Corporation (”Atlantis” or “the Company”), one of the world’s leading developers and manufacturers of electricity-generating tidal current turbines, today announced that it has successfully completed trials of its Solon™ tidal current turbine. Atlantis has previously conducted numerous successful trials of its Nereus™ family of turbines designed for shallow water tidal, current and river installations. The commercial launch of a 2MW Solon™ turbine is now expected as early as summer 2009 and Atlantis is actively reviewing potential installation opportunities in the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and the USA.
Solon™ is a horizontal axis turbine targeted for deep open water deployment and is ideally suited to floating arrays in water depths exceeding 40-50 meters. Through utilisation of a unique ’swept back’ blade design and a specially engineered power take-off system, the turbine produced in excess of 500kW in 8 knots of water flow during testing, representing over 50% throat efficiency; making it the most efficient tidal turbine ever ocean tested.
The five day tow testing program was conducted off the coast of Singapore and involved the mobilisation of the 20 tonne horizontal axis turbine (seven meters in diameter and eight meters in length), on a flat top barge pulled by two ocean going tugs. The turbine was constructed based on Atlantis’s Solon turbine performance model, as developed by the Company’s Head of Research and Development, Dr John Keir, and the test findings will be used to further develop this model . Atlantis will commence fabrication of a final Solon™ design for testing later this year, before embarking on the construction of a commercial scale 2MW turbine in early 2009.
Commenting, Timothy Cornelius, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantis said: “We are hugely excited by Solon’s™ performance during testing and, more importantly, the close correlation of the actual performance to the expected performance predicted by Atlantis’ theoretical model, which we have invested heavily in over the past 12 months. This is the result of ten years hard work and the investment and is testament to our rigorous engineering discipline and application of cutting-edge technology in the design process. Atlantis is now in the very well positioned to deliver a market leading, commercial scale solution, which we expect to be able to launch to the market in summer 2009.
Combined with our unique business development capabilities following the acquisition of Morgan Stanley’s tidal project origination business, this positions Atlantis as a leading player in the global roll-out of commercial scale tidal current generation.”
Dr John Keir, Head of Research and Development at Atlantis, added: “We have been working on the blade design and for over 12 months and were able to draw on the lessons learned during the three years of Nereus’™ turbine development for the power take-off system. After more than a year of computational fluid dynamics modelling, we were very confident that Solon’s™ performance capabilities would be consistent with those in our expectations.
Ultimately we believe that efficiencies in excess of 60% will be achievable for turbines capable of producing more than 4MW each, within the next two years. Our turbine designs and testing regimes are testament to the skills and close integration of our highly experienced development and operational teams and reflect the market demand for highly efficient, cost effective, reliable tidal current turbines.”