AK 1000 The Largest Tidal Power Device August 17, 2010 by lukesheppard

A device said to be the biggest tidal turbine of its type is to be taken by ship from Invergordon to Orkney. The developer of the AK-1000 has said that the device is “simple and robust.” Atlantis Resources unveiled the AK-1000 in Invergordon before it was shipped to the Marine Energy Centre in Orkney. The device is 22.5m tall and weights 1,300 tonnes and has been designed to live in a harsh marine environment. The AK-1000 has a single unit which houses two sets of blades to harness ebb and flood tides and could generate enough electricity for 1000 homes – an estimated one megawatt of power. Because of its rotor diameter of 18m, Atlantis resources have called it the largest bladed turbine of its type. Tim Cornelius, Chief executive has said that they are currently focusing on the marine industry, making the Pentland Firth a great success in terms of generating electricity from renewable energy devices. Mr Cornelius has said “we have had to make the most, what we call dumbest, simplest, yet most robust turbine you could put in such a harsh environment.” The two sets of blades on the turbine are slow moving so that they would not pose as a threat to sealife – six to eight revolutions per minute in fact. Atlantis Resources are also working on a plan which will use tidal energy to power a computer data centre in the north of Scotland. A data centre which would offer services for numerous companies and be powered by tidal energy, instead of depending on electricity supplied to the national grid.