Brazil is filling its seas with huge underwater wind turbines and few know why
A new format for harnessing the energy of love is emerging in Brazil. According to the Italian specialist website Green Me , a Brazilian company is behind projects to install underwater tidal turbines .
This is the initiative of the TidalWatt firm, a device that takes advantage of a design devised to capture the hydrokinetic energy of underwater currents . According to Mauricio Queiroz, CEO and founder of the company, “if the source is predictable and constant, it offers energy security. In this sense, the ocean is the only safe renewable source.”
“Ocean currents are already extensively mapped, so we know of numerous ideal locations to install our underwater power plants,” adds the creator of TidalWatt.
How does it work?
This is a structure with dimensions of three metres in diameter that could use a current of 1.87 knots to generate 5 MW . This is equivalent to the production of a wind turbine of 180 metres in diameter. These are designed for currents with an average speed of one knot .
“Thanks to the availability of the source, a wind turbine produces energy on average 30% of the time; our technology does this 90% of the time,” explains Queiroz, specifying that “being 3,600 times smaller in terms of surface area covered, our turbines can produce three times more energy.” How much energy are we talking about? The firm estimates that one of these turbines in Brazil can supply 22,800 homes .
