the Swedish company SKF announced that its bearings and seals on one of the turbines had passed the 6 1/2-year mark without needing unplanned or disruptive maintenance.
I’ve read many optimistic articles detailing tidal energy projects, however they seldom address the inherent upkeep costs for equipment and infrastructure.
I’m glad maintenance is mentioned here, but I worry that it glosses over that only one out of the four turbines passed the six year mark without needing disruptive repair. How disruptive was the other turbine maintenance? Does it push it beyond viable profitability?
I genuinely do hope for the technology to mature and introduce more clean energy alternatives.
The one that survived without needing to be shut off essentially serves as proof of viability, and combined with the data from the ones that was repaired it helps them figure out how to adjust the design and manufacturing to make every unit last longer. Basically, future turbines should be cheaper to run.
There’s an immense amount of energy available in the tides, but seawater is a nightmare for maintenance. Glad to see these guys figuring out how to make it work.