AU2004100389A4 - Tidal Power Plant - Google Patents

Description

specification description Referring to Figure 2, the illustration shows the mechanism of Moonbeam to extract electrical power from potential energy and consequently kinetic energy gained from lunar and solar tide shifts in ocean linked waters.

In most areas of ocean linked waters on earth, a total of 4 tide shifts of approximately 1 m occur per 24 hours.

As Figure 2 indicates, Moonbeam components consist of a pulley flywheel assembly, belt driven coupling of to controlling weights m, and m 2 When tide shift is upwards, the overall density of weighted buoy ml VI being 0.5 (almost half of salt water) causes nil pull-down force on drive belt side Therefore, mass m 2 will cause a pull down force on drive belt side (B 2 The resultant force (F 1 on pulley is anti-clockwise rotation. The magnitude of (F 1 mass m 2 in Kg x gravitational constant g in ms 2 in Newtons ignoring coupling losses, delivers Energy (F1) x tide shift over approx. 6 hours Power (P1) due to high tide (F1) x (6 x 3600) in Watts As low tide takes over, Force (F2) becomes effective which is resultant of masses ml and m2 in opposite directions.

(F2) (ml m2) x g in Newtons NOTE mass ml is preferably made double mass of m2 to cause same resultant force when pulley moves in clock wise direction.

Power (P2) due to low tide (F2) x (6 x 3600) in Watts And total power output per 24 hours (P1 P2) x 2 for 2 high tides and 2 low tides NOTE there are exceptions where some geographic locations exhibit 1 high tide and 1 low tide, of usually much higher tide shift magnitude. Or even some rare incidences of almost no tide.

3-Jun-04 Page 1 of 3

Claims (1)

1. 200-300 MW. Taking into consideration that this throughput does not include Billions of dollars for mining and refining of fossil fuels, as well as many folds as much land and ocean coverage, the implementation of Moonbeam is undoubtedly economical as well environmentally friendly. Moonbeam can be installed at any waterfront linked to oceans. The Moonbeam plant can be at a river bank inland, still delivering almost free and 100% environmental electricity. Moonbeam due to its modularity can be manufactured to meet various needs all over the world. Moonbeam plants provide a timely commodity to export to all countries. Both industry intensive nations and developing nations will benefit from a low cost alternative to consumption of fossil fuels. Where as fossil fuels can be used for far more valuable petrochemical, and biotechnical ends than burning for the sake of heat they generate and destroy our ecosystem The output of the typical example described earlier, might appear insufficient for high power requirements where waterfront access is a luxury. This is no limitation to what Moonbeam can deliver as secondary industries. To boost the amount of electricity generation, the output of Moonbeam can be utilised to electrolyse readily available water into Hydrogen gas. As Hydrogen combustion technology is advancing, the Hydrogen produced, can be further used to run conventional combustion technology generators. 3-Jun-04 Page 2 of 3 specifications claims Existing commercial scale tidal power plants utilise barraging the tide rise and running hydroelectric turbines. Their output range from small 400 KW units in China to 240 MW plant in France. The largest recent attempt was the 8640-Megawatt Severn Tidal Barrage project in Britain, conducted from 1974 to 1987 and shelved due to economic problems. These barrage based tidal plants also pose environmental problems due to blocking coastal access both by people and fish. Moonbeam is a more advanced approach to tap tidal power compared to barrage and turbine method. First, Moonbeam modules can be made of any size to meet specific requirements and to blend with the environment. Moonbeam modules float and do not block fish movements. And due to modularity can be made mobile to allow dynamic planning of best access routes for shipping requirements. 3-Jun-04 Page 3 of 3