Tidal power

CompactPCI dives into long-term energy source

Tidal power has been used since the 11th century. There willbe tides as long as the moon circles the earth. This energysource will last much longer than all known and hoped fordeposits of crude oil. The world’s first offshore tidal power station became operational in 2003 on the coast of Cornwall (Lynmouth, North Devon) in the southwestern part of England. The project, named Seaflow, is in the Bristol Channel. It is based on propeller-driven turbines from Marine Current Turbines Ltd. (MCT), which are attached to monopiles. These columnar structures resemble gigantic telephone poles 2.5 meters (approximately 8 feet) in diameter anchored underneath the seafloor. Ship travel is not impeded because this arrangement does not require dams.

Unlike winds, tides are not de-pendent on weather conditions. Only one third the diameter of wind rotors of the same power output, the sea turbine rotors reside deep below the water’s surface, not subject to damage from strong waves. The Seaflow turbines produced about25 percent more energy than expected by simulations. This project is the basis for the follow-on project SeaGen, announced on February 7, 2008, using dual-rotor turbines. A tidal power park will be installed off the coast of Anglesey, North Wales, UK (Figure 1, courtesy of MCT, UK). Several units are planned to produce 10.5 MW near Anglesey. A smaller unit is planned at Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. It is estimated that tidal power stations around the British Isles could supply approximately between 8 GW and 16 GW (some experts believe up to 50 GW) of electrical power.

Figure 1

The tidal power station has been reliably controlled since 2003 by saltwater-proved CompactPCI CPUs and I/O cards from SMA Technologie AG, (Germany). Scientists from the Institute for Solar Energy Technology (ISET) at the University of Kassel, Germany, planned the electronic controls of the experimental power station. The Seaflow project was funded by the European Union (EU) and by English and German governmental agencies.

European awards

SMA participated in the contest Great Place to Work in 2006 and 2008. They were among the Top Five out of more than 250 companies twice in the category of companies between 500 and 5,000 employees. National Instruments (Germany) and SICK AG (Germany) were among the Top Fifty in this contest. SICK AG and their subsidiary Ibeo (Germany) are suppliers to most of the laser scanners in all U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenges in the United States and in ELROB contests (see November 2007, Embedded Computing Design, Technology in Europe column (http://www.embedded-computing.com/pdfs/Europe.Nov07.pdf, Figure 2) in Europe. All three winners of the DARPA Urban Challenge 2008 and the best European team as well as 40 outof 43 teams of the 2005 DARPA event used laser scanners from SICK or Ibeo.

European events

CeBIT, the world’s largest digital information event, was held in Hannover, Germany from March 4 to 9, 2008. Slightly under 500,000 visitors (3 percent more than last year) came to a condensed CeBIT (one day less). They viewed the products offered by approximately 5,900 exhibitors from 77 countries in 27 halls. Many of the foreign visitors came from the United States despite the weak dollar.

For the first time China (500 exhibitors) surpassed Taiwan (490 exhibitors) as the largest foreign exhibitor nation. Out of 5,900 exhibitors, 3,000 came from outside Germany. This year France was the partner nation of CeBIT. The event was opened on March 3 by German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, as the only non-government representative.

Green IT center stage

Green IT was a major topic at CeBIT. Figure 2, courtesy of Technology Consulting, Germany, shows where the green grass covered some utility facilities. Even Steve Ballmer made this the topic of his press conference, which was attended by several hundred journalists and many television teams. Throughout the event, an old style computer center (2003 vintage) was running next to a modern computer. The modern computer used 75 percent less energy and emitted 75 percent less CO2. About60 ministers (secretaries of state) and close to 40 ambassadors visited CeBIT and the CeBIT Global Conferences that were held for the first time. This very successful part of CeBIT willbe expanded next year. Just about anything digital, such as handheld devices, servers, enterprise data centers, navigation equipment, and electronics integrated into clothing, could be seen at CeBIT.

Figure 2 (click graphic to zoom by 2.2x)

Tuesday through Friday were business days, while Saturday and Sunday were mostly consumer days. Some exhibitors changed their booths slightly for this reason. Intel went so far as to redo its complete hall overnight (business products out, consumer products in). Intel and a few other companies had more than just a booth. These companies showcased products and services in their own hall (called the Pavilion), which is larger than a car dealer’s grand showroom.

The World Cyber Games (WCG), a sort of Olympic-style games for PC and video gamers, used CeBIT as the stage for theEuro Championship sponsored by Samsung. Approximately250 gamers from 30 nations were gaming for $100,000 in prize money. Germany earned one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals out of seven competitions.

Just in time for World Women’s Day, there were more than 10,000 women attending the Women@CeBIT special event. There is an extreme shortage of qualified IT engineers in Germany. Many companies and organizations hold Girl’s Days throughout the year to encourage girls to pursue engineering and IT-related education and careers.

For more information, contact Hermann at:

hstrass@opensystems-publishing.com