Aquantis, Inc.

Dehlsen Associates, LLC

Clipper Wind Technology, Inc.

Peter Stricker

James George Purnell Dehlsen

Henry Swales

James G P Dehlsen

Ole Kils

Tyler Mayer

The present invention is a marine current turbine featuring a downstream rotor, a faired spar, a deckhouse at the waterline, and a ballasting and mooring arrangement to ensure the center of buoyancy is above the center of gravity to provide a stable platform and ample rotor torque reaction. The faired spar minimizes the wake deficit ingested by the rotor and reduces turbulence and drag on the turbine. The deckhouse provides buoyancy to react to gravitational forces and the downward tension component supplied by the mooring system during maximum platform and rotor drag conditions and reserve buoyancy if a portion of the platform becomes flooded. The mooring arrangement preferably forms a bridle to provide yaw stability.

Marine current turbine platform with faired spar

A reverse osmosis water production apparatus for use in a body of water includes a first section defining a buoyancy chamber and an elongate second section connected to the first section and configured to define an elongate chamber which extends downward beneath a waterline in use. The elongate chamber is provided with a plurality of elongate reverse osmosis membrane tubes, each tube containing a reverse osmosis membrane. A longitudinal axis of each reverse osmosis membrane tube is substantially parallel with a longitudinal axis of the elongate chamber and the reverse osmosis membrane tubes are arranged around a passage.

Reverse osmosis water production apparatus

A marine current turbine rotor comprises a hub and fixed and two or more pitchable blade sections configured to reduce bending moment loads on the pitch bearings and enable the use of non-standard, low-cost structural materials for the hub, blades, and pitch shaft. A submersible pitch drive mechanism or linkage in the hub rotates the pitch shaft to cause the pitchable blade section to move to a specified pitch position. The hub cavity is configured to be 'wet' without the expense and maintenance requirement of seals to prevent water intrusion, utilizing water-lubricated pitch bearings.

Fixed and pitching blades, spar shaft, bearings and materials for marine current turbine

The present invention provides a novel, floating, offshore wind turbine (FOWT) structure, referred to as a yawing buoy mast (YBM) structure. The YBM platform vertically combines a submerged spar buoy with outrigger legs and a mast on which a wind turbine nacelle is mounted. Compared to a conventional spar buoy wind turbine, weight is significantly reduced by optimizing how loads are borne and reacted by the floating structure. The mass of the YBM platform is reduced relative to the energy captured by the turbine resulting in a reduction in the cost of energy (COE). Platform load dynamics are coupled with the dynamics of the wind turbine by integration of the YBM platform and turbine controllers.

Yawing buoy mast for floating offshore wind turbines

A wind or ocean turbine has an input-power shaft-mounted, rotating bull-gear with smaller stationary pinion-driven powertrains including generators mounted around the periphery of the bull-gear. A controller regulates torque experienced by each powertrain to balance torque between generators at any system load. Regulation includes controlling local voltage at each generator by a transformer configured as a reactor. Coils of the transformers are wired in parallel and actively modulated with an SOR, solid-state, switching device. Each generator output is connected to a respective primary coil of a transformer and a respective secondary coil is connected to an SCR. By using pulse width modulation, the SCR is gated on and off for a portion of a 60 Hz cycle. By adjusting the duty cycle of SCR gating, any voltage between 80% and 100% is attained to satisfy immediate torque requirements.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Barbara, CA, United States of America

Peter Stricker