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Measurements of tidal current water velocities is an important first step in evaluating the potential for a tidal site to be used as a renewable energy resource. For this reason, on site measurements are performed at the inlet of a fjord situated at the coast of Norway. The site has an average width of 580 m and adepth of 10-15 m which is narrow and shallow enough to give rise to water velocities that can be of use for energy conversion. With the use of an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) cross-section measurements are conducted along four transects. The measurements covered flood and ebb currents around one tide and the data give a first approximation of the magnitude and distribution of the flow field. Depth averaged mean current velocities are calculated along the transects for horizontal bins with sizes in the order of 50 x 50 m. Maximum mean velocity for the flood currents were 1.31 m/s and 1.46 m/s for the ebb currents. The measurements show that even a small amount of data can give an indication of the potential and characteristics ofthe site.

For tidal-stream energy industry to be fully realized, lower velocity sites and fjords should be developed. Finding new prospective sites for in-stream energy extraction from tidal currents is an area of ongoing research. In this paper, the tidal flow at a fjord inlet has been characterized using acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) measurements. This work is based on two survey measurement techniques: transect measurements to map the spatial variability, and seabed measurements to map the temporal variability. The data was analyzed in terms of characterizing metrics, to ensure they are comparable with other resource assessments. Results show that currents exceed 1 m/s for 38% of the time with peak currents of 2.06 m/s at hub height (middle of the water column) and the directional asymmetry is less than 1° between ebb and flood, indicating a truly bi-directional flow. A simple prediction model is proposed which allows peak current speeds to be accurately predicted in the channel center from tidal range data using a linear relationship. The relationship is shown to be strong, with a correlation coefficient of 0.98 at hub height, and a standard variation typically less than 10 cm/s. Furthermore, it is show that a minimum of 9 days of measurements are required to set up the model, although it takes 29 days to reduce the error in peak speed to less than 1%. However, the error is expected to vary depending on where in the monthly tidal cycle the survey begins, it is thus recommended to measure around spring tide if the measurement period is short.

The Division of Electricity at Uppsala University recently deployed an experimental hydrokinetic power station for in-stream experiments at a site in a river. This paper briefly describes the deployment process and reports some initial results from measurements made at the test site.

Wake characteristics of marine current turbines are of significant importance to the development of the marine current power source. Turbine wake recovery determines spacing of turbines in arrays, and environmental impact on e.g. the seabed is heavily influenced by wake behaviour. The majority of previous studies on wakes has been performed on flow-aligned (horizontal) axis turbines and mainly carried out as scale model experiments or numerical simulations.

This paper describes the performance of wake measurements at the Söderfors test site, where an experimental marine current power station is operated in a river. The turbine is of the cross-flow (vertical) axis type, and the measurements are performed using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) towed on the surface by a boat. Positioning data is taken from a high-accuracy Global Navigation Satellite System. The paper discusses various aspects of the methodology employed and provides examples of taken measurements.

Increasing the share of intermittent renewable energy (IRE) resources such as solar, wind, wave and tidal energy in a power system poses a challenge in terms of increased net load variability. Fully renewable power systems have previously been analysed, but more systematic analyses are needed that explore the effect of different IRE mixes on system-wide variability across different timescales and the optimal combinations of IRE for reducing variability on a given timescale. Here we investigate these questions for the Nordic power system. We show that the optimal mix of IRE is dependent on the frequency band considered. Long-term (>4 months) and short-term (<2 days) fluctuations can be similar to today’s, even for a fully renewable system. However, fluctuations with periods in between will inevitably increase significantly. This study indicates that, from a variability point of view, a fossil- and nuclear-free Nordic power system is feasible if properly balanced by hydropower.

Tidal currents provide an intermittent source of renewable energy. A high degree of intermittency is unfavorable in the existing power system. However, by aggregating tidal power from sites with variable tidal phase a more firm power outpu tmay be achieved. In this paper, the tidal current phasing between 114 potential tidal energy sites along the Norwegian coast is investigated. Time series of tidal currents are generated with a model that considers the variation in current strength due to the variability in the semi-diurnal tidal cycle (spring to neap, flood to ebb, first to second daily tide etc.). From these, available kinetic energy in the natural flow is calculated. A constant conversion rate is then applied to give the power output at each site. Three scenarios, with varying number of sites and energy extraction, are investigated. The variability in each scenario is quantified on different time scales by filtering the aggregated power and calculate standard deviation and step change. It is found that the variability can be lowered by choosing sites with an advantageous time lag and limit the power output from the most energetic sites. As expected, smoothing is most distinct on short time scales.