Orbital Marine Power O2: la revolucionaria turbina mareomotriz

Orbital Marine Power O2: The game-changing tidal turbine	English
Orbital Marine Power O2: la turbina di marea rivoluzionaria	Italian
Orbital Marine Power O2 : L'hydrolienne révolutionnaire	French
Orbital Marine Power O2: революционная приливная турбина	Russian
Orbital Marine Power O2: la revolucionaria turbina mareomotriz	Spanish

Orbital Marine Power O2: la turbina di marea rivoluzionaria

El reino de la energía verde está lleno de emocionantes posibilidades. Para naciones insulares como el Reino Unido, la promesa de la energía mareomotriz siempre ha sido atractiva. Esto se debe a la geografía única del país y al potencial para este tipo de generación de energía. No debería sorprender entonces que el O2, la turbina mareomotriz más potente del mundo, se esté desarrollando allí. Opera en las remotas Islas Orcadas frente a la costa norte de Escocia.

¿Qué es el O2?
Dada la gran escala y la naturaleza de alta tecnología del dispositivo, se podría pensar que el O2 es una especie de equipo militar de última generación. Por el contrario, en realidad es una gran turbina mareomotriz de 680 toneladas creada por Orbital Marine Power, con sede en el Reino Unido. Con 243 pies de largo, tiene aproximadamente el mismo tamaño que un Boeing 747 de largo. Sus brazos de sujeción del rotor alcanzan los 59 pies por debajo de la superficie del agua, donde los rotores de 66 pies luego barren un área de 6,458 pies cuadrados.

El O2 operará en la base de operaciones de la compañía en las Islas Orcadas. La razón para elegir Orkney como el primer sitio para albergar una unidad de O2 no es una elección arbitraria. Es porque Orkney alberga algunas de las corrientes de marea más fuertes del mundo, a veces superiores a los 3 m/s. Aprovechando esta energía de las mareas, el O2 se utilizará para ayudar a alimentar los hogares que conforman la comunidad de Orkney, proporcionando energía local, limpia y verde.

El O2: Tecnología
La energía de las mareas se ha generado antes, entonces, ¿qué tiene de especial la tecnología detrás del nuevo sistema de Orbital? La unidad O2 funciona utilizando una plataforma flotante única desarrollada íntegramente por Orbital. Está amarrado al lecho marino mediante fuertes anclas que lo mantienen en su lugar incluso durante las corrientes de marea más fuertes. Estos flujos de agua se capturan mediante rotores submarinos unidos a patas ajustables.

Una parte particularmente ingeniosa del diseño del rotor es que se pueden invertir entre diferentes ciclos de marea. Esto significa que el O2 es capaz de capturar flujos de marea generadores de energía sin importar en qué dirección vayan. La energía generada se envía a través de cables a la red eléctrica adjunta.

Las patas comienzan en un nivel horizontal que coincide con la unidad de O2 flotante, pero luego descienden al agua cuando llega el momento de activar los rotores generadores de energía. La belleza de este sistema es que el O2 se puede mantener y reparar de manera segura mientras aún está amarrado en su lugar, ya que las patas pueden volver a subir al nivel del agua para que los técnicos e ingenieros trabajen en ellas. Además, a pesar de su gran peso, aún puede ser remolcado por remolcadores típicos económicos, lo que hace que ponerlo en su lugar y llevarlo a la costa sea una propuesta relativamente rentable.

¿El futuro de la energía verde?
Si tiene éxito, ¿por qué el O2 y unidades similares podrían convertirse en una alternativa más viable a la energía eólica y solar? Por un lado, el agua es mucho más densa en energía que el aire, lo que significa que incluso con rotores más pequeños, una corriente de marea que se mueve a 4 m/s puede producir mucha más energía que con el viento. Además, las mareas se pueden predecir y depender de ellas, a diferencia del viento y la luz del sol. Mientras tengamos la luna en su lugar, sabemos dónde estarán las mareas y qué tan fuertes.

A pesar de estos hechos emocionantes, incluso el director ejecutivo de Orbital, Andrew Scott, admite que no es una solución milagrosa para resolver el cambio climático o las crisis energéticas. La empresa ha probado con éxito su prototipo, el SR2000, en las aguas de Orkney. Con el concepto probado, el camino está despejado para la implementación del O2 para ver cómo puede funcionar a mayor escala. Obtenga más información sobre Orbital y la turbina mareomotriz O2 en su sitio web.

The realm of green energy is full of exciting possibilities. For island nations like the UK, the promise of tidal power has always been attractive. This is owing to the country’s unique geography and potential for this type of energy generation. It should be no surprise then that the O2, the most powerful tidal turbine in the world, is being developed there. It operates in the remote Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland.

What is the O2?

Given the grand scale and high-tech nature of the device, you might think that the O2 is some kind of next-generation military equipment. On the contrary, it is in fact a large, 680-ton tidal turbine created by UK-based Orbital Marine Power. At 243 feet long, it’s about the same size as a Boeing 747 in length. Its rotor-holding arms reach 59 feet below the surface of the water, where the 66-foot rotors then sweep an area of 6,458 square feet.

The O2 will operate in the company’s homebase of the Orkney Islands. The reason for choosing Orkney as the first site to host an O2 unit isn’t an arbitrary choice. It’s because Orkney is home to some of the strongest tidal currents in the world, sometimes in excess of 3m/s. Harnessing this tidal power, the O2 will be used to help power the homes that make up the Orkney community, delivering local, clean and green energy.

The O2: Technology

Tidal power has been generated before, so what’s so special about the technology behind Orbital’s new system? The O2 unit works using a unique floating platform developed entirely by Orbital. It’s moored to the seabed using strong anchors that hold it in place even during the strongest tidal streams. These flows of water are captured using underwater rotors attached to adjustable legs.

A particularly ingenious part of the rotor design is that they can be reversed in between different tide cycles. This means that the O2 is capable of capturing power-generating tidal flows no matter in which direction they are going. Power generated is sent via cables to the attached electricity grid.

The legs begin at a horizontal level matching the floating O2 unit, but these then lower themselves into the water when it’s time to activate the power-generating rotors. The beauty of this system is that the O2 can be safely maintained and repaired while it’s still moored in place as the legs can be brought back up to water level to be worked on by technicians and engineers. In addition, despite its large heft, it can still be towed by inexpensive typical tugboats, which makes putting in place and bringing it back to shore a relatively cost-effective proposition.

The Future of Green Energy?

If successful, why could the O2 and units like it become a more viable alternative to wind and solar power? For one thing, water is much more energy-dense than air, meaning that even with smaller rotors, a lot more energy can be produced by a tidal stream moving 4m/s than with wind. What’s more, tides can be predicted and depended upon, unlike wind and sunshine. As long as we have the moon in place, we know where the tides will be and how strong.

Despite these exciting facts, even Orbital’s CEO Andrew Scott admits it isn’t a “silver bullet” to solve climate change or energy crises. The company has successfully tested its prototype, the SR2000 in the Orkney waters. With the concept proved, the way is clear for implementation of the O2 to see how this can work on a bigger scale. Learn more about Orbital and the O2 tidal turbine on their website.

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Startup

A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.

Actions

Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.

Design principles

Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".

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Startup

A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.

Actions

Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.

Design principles

Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".

Jokes Random

An engineer was enjoying

An engineer was enjoying his very first vacation ever, relaxing on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. It was wonderful, the experience of his life. He was being waited on hand and foot. But a hurricane came, and the ship went down instantly. The man found himself swept up onto the shore of an island. There was nothing else anywhere to be seen. No person, no supplies, nothing. The man looked around. There were some bananas and coconuts, but that was it. He was desperate, and forlorn, but decided to make the best of it. So for the next four months he ate bananas, drank coconut juice and mostly looked to the sea hoping for a ship to come to his rescue. One day, as he was lying on the beach stroking his beard and looking for a ship, he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. Could it be true, was it a ship? No. From around the corner of the island came a rowboat. But in it was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen, or at least seen in four months. She was tall, tanned, and her blond hair flowing in the sea breeze gave her an almost ethereal quality. She spotted him waving and yelling and screaming to get her attention and rowed her boat towards him. In disbelief, he asked, "Where did you come from? How did you get here?" She said, "I rowed from the other side of the island. I landed on this island when my cruise ship sank." "Amazing," he said, "I didn't know anyone else had survived. How many of you are there? Where, did you get the rowboat? Wow, you were really lucky to have a rowboat wash-up with you!" "It is only me." she said, "And the rowboat didn't wash up, nothing else did." "Well then," asked the man, "how did you get the rowboat?" "I made the rowboat out of raw material that I found on the island", replied the woman. "The oars were whittled from Gum tree branches, I wove the bottom from Palm branches, and the sides and stern came from a Eucalyptus tree." "But," asked the man, "what about tools and hardware, how did you do that?" "Oh, no problem," replied the woman. "On the south side of the island there is a very unusual stratum of alluvial rock exposed. I found that if I fired it in my kiln it would melt into forgeable ductile iron. I used that for tools, and used the tools to make the hardware. But, enough of that," she said. "Where do you live?" The engineer was forced to confess that he had been sleeping on the beach. "Well, let's row over to my place," she said. So they both got into the rowboat and left for her side of the island. The woman rowed them around to a wharf that led to the approach to her place. She tied up the rowboat with a beautifully woven hemp rope. They walked up a stone walk and around a palm tree. There stood an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white. "It's not much," she said, "but I call it home. After a while exchanging stories, the woman asked, "Have you always had a beard?" "No, I was clean shaven all of my life, even on the cruise ship," he replied. "Well if you would like to shave, there is a men's razor upstairs in the bathroom." The man, no longer questioning anything, went upstairs to the bathroom. There in the cabinet, was a razor made from a bone handle, two shells honed to a hollow ground edge were fastened on to its end inside of a swivel mechanism. The man shaved, showered and went back down stairs. "You look great," said the woman, "I think I will go up and slip into something more comfortable." After a short time, the woman returned wearing fig leaves strategically positioned and smelling faintly of gardenia. "Tell me," she asked, "we have both been out here for a very long time with no companionship. Have you been lonely, is there anything that you really miss? Something that all men need, and women, too. Something that it would be really nice to have right now." "Yes there is, " the man replied, as he moved closer to the woman and fixed a winsome gaze upon her. "Tell me, do you have an Internet connection?"