Brazil has over 50,000 rivers, Chile has more fjords then Norway, The Indonesian archipelago has ocean currents that flow from the Pacific Ocean into the Indian Ocean 24/7 the Mediterranean has numerous island and the Bosporus flows have been renown since ancient times. In Europe River were flowing a 105% - 125% capacity due to the effect of global warming. In north America Canada and the United States have rivers bays and straits between islands and the mainland where oceans current are concentrated. Pacific Island nations all have moving water currents flowing past the door step.
Commencing in 1996 Tidal Energy Pty Ltd researchers commenced investigations into the extraction of energy from moving water.
Little innovation had occurred in water current turbine design since Roman times and later when Dutch windmills were used to pump water and grind grain.
Commencing in the Queensland Government Hydraulics Laboratory at Deagon near Brisbane Tidal Energy began trial on venturi technology for accelerating water across a turbine allowing energy to be extracted from the moving water more efficiently.
A Patent was granted in 1998 that included square and round geometry configurations
Others have since tried to copy this design
In 2000-2001 Tidal Energy researchers began work of wide angle down stream diffusers that created a vortex that resembled a funnel held with the narrow opening into the flow. Completely counter intuitive the wide angle of the downstream diffuser created a low pressure or vortex vacuum that cause flow to be sucked into the diffuser increasing the flow across the turbine by nearly 4 times. When a turbine was fitted the diffuser improved the efficiency or power produced by the turbine by a factor of at least 3 times compared to the same turbine without the diffuser – 3.84 times being the best result to date.
In 2003 a Patent was granted for a downstream diffuser that included round geometry configuration
Global Patents (held in trust) have been awarded under the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) in the USA Canada, all of the EU, India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil and New Zealand.
The down stream diffuser was refined and developed into a world leading if not world best under water turbine capable of harvesting the energy in moving water.
An early version seen here raised for viewing it is now called the Davidson-Hill Venturi Turbine.
A larger version was built to satisfy calls for a unit to be run for a significant period of time to confirm performance data.
The power produced can be used to supplement existing diesel generators, pump up the grid, desalinate sea water or produce hydrogen.
The advanced simplicity of the Tidal Energy turbine design enables turbines to be flat packed for ease of shipping and assembly anywhere in the world.
Tidal Energy Pty Ltd systems can be implemented in almost any region of the world where there is fast flowing water. Projects up 400 MW are currently under investigation in many sites around the globe.
