Zero friction.
The Oceana turbine is as beautifully sculpted as it is effective. In contrast to designs with three blades, our turbine has eight blades that are individually connected to a rotating ring. Each blade is positioned over the rotating ring at a point which balances axial forces exerted by the current flow on either side of the ring. The eight blades and their rotating ring structure together comprise the only moving part in the turbine’s collection architecture. The rotating ring and its blades float over the turbine chassis on a magnetic bearing system. This magnetic system prevents contact and thereby friction and wear between the rotating ring and chassis. The flowing elements of the rotor ring and its blades blend seamlessly into the rest of the turbine’s architecture.
Affordable energy.
Money is an engineering parameter like voltage, force, and energy. If you build it and people can’t afford it, the game is over. Oceana designers began with the goal of supplying electricity to the grid at costs below $80/MWh. We have succeeded. Our Techno-Economic Model shows that arrays with increasing numbers of Oceana turbines drop the cost of electricity as it flows out of the sea and into the power grid as follows — 10 - $206/MWh, 50 - $103/MWh, 100 - $90/MWh, 500 - $79/MWh. For the first time, sustainable, renewable electricity from the tides can be collected to the grid and people around the globe can afford it. Electricity costs are projected to drop even further as materials costs are projected to drop over the next 10 years. Oceana's marine turbine architecture can quickly be scaled from a 6-foot R&D prototype to much larger models, each one capable of generating more than a megawatt of power, suitable for deployment in a wide range of potential tidal sites around the globe.
Built to last.
Competing marine turbines are simply adaptations of windmills on land. Realizing that conditions under the sea in a tidal estuary are quite different from conditions in the fresh air above a breezy hillside. Ocean water has a density 800 times that of air and the thrust of energy from ocean currents is 800 times more powerful than the thrust from wind. These conditions present a harsh, corrosive environment. A tidal turbine must be strong enough to withstand tremendous forces. Oceana engineers started from scratch to build a new kind of turbine uniquely well-suited to collect energy from the tides. Made using newly developed, super-strength composite materials and magnets, Oceana's marine turbine is expressly engineered to harness the moon-driven kinetic energy, which is renewed daily, in tides all around the globe.
