Japan wants to maximize hydroelectricity, and will take on any ocean current that is strongest. This is precisely what the Kairyu turbine can do, which is a true leviathan capable of transforming ocean currents into an almost limitless supply electricity.
Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries in Japan, also known as IHI Corporation has been working on this technology since more than ten years. To test its designs, the company partnered up with New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organizations (NEDO) in 2017.
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In February 2022, the company finally hit a major milestone of successfully conducting a three-and-a-half-year field test in the waters off Japan’s southwestern coast. Kairyu is the Japanese name for the prototype, which weighs in at 330 tons and translates as “ocean current”. It consists of a fuselage measuring 20 meters in length, flanked by similar cylindricals that house a power generator system and a turbine blade measuring 11 meters long.
How it works
The machine can be tethered to an anchor line and power cable to the ocean floor to find the best position to generate electricity from the current. It can hover approximately 50 meters below water surface. The turbines generate the torque needed by the drag it creates as it floats towards surface.
To keep the turbine stable, the blades can also rotate in the opposite direction.
IHI believes that ocean energy can be harnessed to produce as much electricity as the country generates from other sources if it is done correctly.
However, there are challenges to be considered, with the biggest one being power output. While Kairyu’s current output of 100kW is impressive, it barely holds a candle to the output of an average offshore wind turbine system that has a capacity of anywhere between 2.5 to 3 MW.
Moreover, tidal power is a tricky avenue because of its high upfront costs in terms of plants and maintenance and the lack of an established production market.
