New Waterwheel Blades For Power Generation In Kuroshio

Kuroshio, one of ocean currents in the Pacific, passing through the eastern Taiwan provides a kind of clean ocean energy. For collecting Kuroshio power, we need to build high performance turbine generators suitable for flow speed less than 1.5 m/s. Conventional blades of waterwheel turbine are usually fixed to the rotating disk, and this leads to retard the rotation of the rotating disk due to the counteraction of the thrust. In this study, we present a new waterwheel blade, solar-planetary type blades, to upgrade energy conversion efficiency. A preliminary experiment was conducted at Gia-nan irrigation ditch located on the downstream of Wushantou dam in Taiwan. Experimental results indicate that waterwheel apparatus with solar-planetary type blades can raise the output power from 3.3 kW to 13.8 kW when the flow speed varied from 0.5 m/s to 1.2 m/s. The power coefficient is 1.22 and power output reaches 7.51 kW at 1.0 m/s water velocity. Compared with fixed type blades, the proposed rotatable blades can improve the power generation efficiency and enhance energy conversion efficiency.