A platform for Kuroshio Energy Harvesters

In response to the increasing renewable energy demand, harvesting the energy from Kuroshio become an important task in Taiwan. In this study, the ANSYS-FLUENT and ANSYS-AQWA were used to design a Spar platform for carrying multiple current energy harvesters. The platform follows the design code of ABS rules (ABS, 2014). The designed spar model was established in OrcaFlex, and so as the mooring line system, including the anchor chain and duct chain was built. The simulated results show the spar is stable under normal and storm wave conditions. The pre-designed nozzle-diffuser-duct (NDD) can capture 15 kW of current energy, however, as a megawatt power plant, 60 ducts are needed to be deployed. The proposed SPAR platform could be used as a carrier to overcome the difficulties of deploying 60 NDDs to seabed and it may also reduce the construction costs. The simulated results show the spar and associated NDDs are stable under normal and storm wave conditions. This study suggests the platform may be expected to carry more than 60 NDDs and the megawatt Kuroshio energy harvester is feasible to be deployed at the east coast of Taiwan in the future.