Swansea Bay tidal power station
| Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| location | |||
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| Coordinates | 51 ° 35 '39 " N , 3 ° 54' 17" W | ||
| country |
 United Kingdom
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| Waters | Bristol Channel , Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Data | |||
| Type | Tidal power plant | ||
| Primary energy | Hydropower | ||
| power | 320 MW (electrical) installed | ||
| operator | Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) plc. | ||
| Project start | 2010 | ||
| Start of operations | Not built yet | ||
| turbine | 16 Kaplan turbines of 20 MW each | ||
| Website | www.tidallagoonswanseabay.com | ||
| was standing | Mid 2015 | ||
The tidal power station Swansea Bay (also tidal lagoon Swansea Bay , Eng. Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay ) was a planned tidal power plant in dam construction method in the Swansea Bay (Swansea Bay), a bay of the Bristol Channel in the city Swansea on the south coast of Wales in the United Kingdom .
The planning for the structure had been running since 2010, and the construction was approved by the Ministry of Energy in 2015. The start of construction was expected in 2018 [obsolete] . The construction time was planned for around four years (with the first electricity generation in the third year). The cost of construction should be around £ 1 billion . In 2018, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced that the project would not be pursued any further. However, there are attempts by private investors to resume work.
After its completion, the power plant with a planned installed capacity of 320 megawatts would probably have been the largest plant of its kind in the world; ahead of the current front runner, the South Korean tidal power plant Sihwa-ho with 254 MW. Even larger systems are in the planning stage, but their project development is not that far advanced.
Geographical location and environment
The Swansea Bay in the Bristol Channel was chosen as the location for the plant because of the Bristol Channel particularly pronounced tide has. Due to the funnel shape of the bay in an east-west direction and the relatively low water depth, a tidal wave is created here, which has a tidal range of up to 10.5 m at the top; this is the second largest tidal range in the world. In the Swansea Bay area , the tidal range varies between 4.1 and 8.5 m.
The artificial lagoon with the power plant is located in the middle section of Swansea Bay, southeast of the city of Swansea, more precisely in front of its districts Port Tennant with its upstream docks and Crymlyn Burrows with the university campus. Most of the enclosed stretch of coast is fortified and built on.
To the west of the lagoon is the mouth of the River Tawe and to the east that of the River Neath . The lagoon intentionally does not include these estuaries in order to impede the flow in the estuary and in the bay as little as possible and thus to minimize the ecological impact.
history
Considerations for a tidal power plant in the Bristol Channel have existed for many years, as this area can be expected to produce particularly good output due to the large tidal range. For a long time there was talk of building an approximately 16 km long dam across the Severn Estuary from Cardiff on the north bank to Bristol on the south bank. The power plant installed in this way could have an output of up to 8,500 MW. Because of the enormous costs and the serious impact on the estuary's ecosystem, these plans were finally abandoned by the British government in 2010.
In the same year, planning began for a much smaller power plant in Swansea Bay. When developing the concept, care was taken from the start to avoid the main reasons that led to the rejection of the Severn Dam. This particularly concerned the impact on the environment. So the idea arose not to use a natural bay as a reservoir, but to create a predominantly artificial lagoon.
At the end of 2012 a study for the environmental impact assessment was submitted to the authorities; In 2014, further necessary permits for the construction were applied for. The permit is expected to be issued in mid-2015, so that construction can begin at the end of 2015 at the earliest.
At the beginning of June 2015, the project received approval from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change . According to the operator, the next big step is to negotiate the state-guaranteed feed-in tariff in order to ensure the profitability of the investment.
The first contracts for the construction were also awarded in June 2015: The contract for the necessary water and coastal construction work, in particular the construction of the almost 10 km long dam, was awarded to the China Harbor Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) . The actual power plant with 16 water turbines is being supplied by a consortium made up of General Electric and Andritz Hydro .
Technical structure and functionality
The entire system consists of the artificial " lagoon ", a storage basin enclosed by a dam, and the barrier and power station with its water turbines and weir systems :
Lagoon (reservoir)
A special feature of the power plant is the construction of the storage basin, the "lagoon". In contrast to other tidal power plants in dam construction, no natural bay or river mouth is separated from the open sea , but the dam runs as a mole from the coast in a wide arc out into the sea and back again to the coast. This makes the dam considerably longer and therefore more complex; however, this disadvantage was accepted because the impact on the environment is less serious. This arises because the artificial lagoon created in this way lies within a natural bay, but has only relatively minor effects on its coastline with the ecologically particularly valuable bank and mudflat zone .
The lagoon is designed for a lifespan of 120 years and is designed to withstand 500-year storms. The effects of global warming were also taken into account. In addition, the lagoon should also protect the coast behind it from the effects of severe storms and floods .
The dam is about 9.5 km long; it thus forms about ¾ of the circumference of the lagoon. The dam has a height of up to 20 m above ground ; the crown rises about 12 m above sea level at low tide and about 3.5 m above sea level at high tide. The cross-section of the dam is between 50 and 100 m wide, depending on the section.
The core of the pier consists of locally washed up sand. This is stabilized on the sides by sand-filled tubes made of geotextiles , which are laid one on top of the other in several layers. To protect against erosion caused by the impact of waves, the dam is also provided with a revetment made of stone blocks. There is a walkable and drivable path on the Krone; This serves on the one hand for the maintenance and control of the dike as well as access to the power and barrage and on the other hand for recreation for hikers, cyclists, anglers and water sports enthusiasts.
The lagoon enclosed by the dam has an area of about 11.5 km². The active volume of the reservoir, which is exchanged with each tidal cycle, is around 100 million cubic meters.
Power and barrage
The power and barrage is in the southwestern section of the lagoon dam. It is 420 m wide, 180 m of which is accounted for by the barrage and 2 x 120 m by the power plant.
The barrier in the middle section consists of 10 rotatable door flaps. With these shut-off flaps, excess tidal currents can be directed past the turbines into or out of the lagoon.
The power plant is divided into two parts; A total of 16 Kaplan bulb turbines with a capacity of 20 MW each are arranged in two machine houses to the right and left of the spear mill . In total, the power plant has an installed electrical output of 320 megawatts. With an average height difference (head) of 4.5 m, the turbines have a nominal output of 240 MW. At its peak, up to 10,000 m³ / s of seawater can flow through the power and dam. With 14 hours of operation per day, the system should generate around 500 GWh of electricity annually. Compared to a fossil power plant, this should save around 236,000 t of CO 2 per year.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ For comparison: This roughly corresponds to the area of the Edertalsperre , which is the second largest reservoir in Germany.
- ↑ For comparison: This is more than the mean discharge (MQ) of the Volga , which is the river with the most water in Europe.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c The Project: Timeline. Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) plc., Accessed June 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Timeline ( Memento from June 7, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/uk-water-industry-could-fund-1-3bn-swansea-bay-scheme-03-07-2018/
- ^ The world's 10 biggest tidal power projects. businessGreen, November 7, 2014, accessed June 22, 2015 .
- ^ Tidal giants - the world's five biggest tidal power plants. power-technology.com, April 11, 2014, accessed June 22, 2015 .
- ↑ Swansea Bay's £ 1bn tidal lagoon given go-ahead. BBC News, June 9, 2015, accessed June 22, 2015 .
- ↑ Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon unlocks Chinese inward investment and British export opportunities. (No longer available online.) Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) plc., June 3, 2015, archived from the original on June 29, 2015 ; accessed on June 22, 2015 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Chinese group to build world's first tidal energy plant in Swansea Bay. In: Financial Times Online. Accessed June 23, 2015 .
- ↑ ANDRITZ HYDRO is to supply equipment for the world's first tidal lagoon hydropower project in Swansea Bay, Wales. (No longer available online.) Andritz Hydro, February 10, 2015, archived from the original on April 5, 2015 ; accessed on June 23, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Generating Power From Tidal Lagoons. In: The New York Times. October 28, 2014, accessed June 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Shaun Waters, George Aggidis: A World First: Swansea Bay Tidal lagoon in review . In: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews . tape 56 , 2016, p. 916-921, especially p. 917 , doi : 10.1016 / j.rser.2015.12.011 .
- ↑ a b c d e f The Project: FAQs. Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) plc., Accessed June 18, 2015 .
- ↑ a b c Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) plc. (Ed.): Project Update to Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay . Presentation. February 2014 ( online as PDF ).
- ↑ a b c d Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) plc. (Ed.): Project Introduction to Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay . Presentation. ( Online as PDF ).
- ↑ a b Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) plc. (Ed.): Environmental Statement, Chapter 4: Project Description . Presentation. ( Online as PDF ).
