POWER May 2015 - 12

2. Heavyweight. GE's new 9HA gas
turbine, set to enter service this summer in
France, will be the most powerful and efficient
model on the market, the company says.
Courtesy: GE
3. Lagoon generation. The UK government is mulling a proposal to build a 320-MW
tidal lagoon plant that would cordon off 4.4 square miles in Swansea Bay, Wales, using a fivemile-long
breakwater. This image shows an artist's rendition of the proposed project. Courtesy:
Ida-design
ect to produce electricity from turbines in
Swansea Bay, South Wales.
The 320-MW project (Figure 3)-which
The 50-hertz 9HA (Figure 2) and 60hertz
7HA both come in two different
models. The 9HA.01 is rated at 397 MW
in simple cycle mode and 592 MW in 1 x 1
combined cycle mode, while the 9HA.02
is rated at 510 MW in simple cycle and
755 MW in combined cycle. The 7HA.01
and 7HA.02, meanwhile, are rated at 275
MW and 405 MW, and 337 MW and 468
MW, respectively.
Both designs can achieve better than
41% efficiency in simple cycle and more
than 61% in combined cycle mode. GE
says the 9HA.01-the model slated for
Bourchain-can reach full power in 30
minutes and ramp at 60 MW per minute.
GE already has $1 billion in orders for
7HA and 9HA turbines-15 units so far-
and it hopes to sell up to 500 of them
by 2030, which could represent up to half
of its gas turbine sales. The company said
this spring that it's currently negotiating
for up to $11 billion in additional orders.
-Thomas W. Overton, JD, associate
editor
UK Mulls Massive Tidal
Lagoon Power Project
In the UK, which has the world's largest
offshore wind capacity, in large part due
to government backing, formal negotiations
have begun on public funding of a
£1 billion ($1.48 billion) tidal lagoon proj12
could
be the first of its type in the world
when operational-would require building
a breakwater to cordon off 4.4 square miles
in Swansea Bay. The five-mile sea wall
would be up to 20 meters high, though
only half would be visible from land at low
tide. Ultimately, it would funnel enough
water to fill 100,000 Olympic swimming
pools through dual-direction turbines,
generating an estimated 420 GWh annually
both at high and low tide. If built, the
project could be online as early as 2018
and would last 120 years, its developer,
Tidal Lagoon Power Co., says.
Wider plans call for four more projects,
even larger than Swansea Bay,
with an overall capacity of 7.3 GW. Tidal
Lagoon Power in March sought government
approval for a second site near
Cardiff. The second lagoon could cover
an area seven times larger than Swansea's
and have a capacity of between
1.8 GW and 2.8 GW.
For now, the Swansea Bay project seemingly
has the blessing of some environmental
groups because it could help the
UK reduce its coal use. UK Energy and
Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey backs
it for the same reason, pushing it as a viable
source of low-carbon power. Concerns
about the project mostly hinge on its exorbitant
costs-which aren't settled and
will depend on a range of factors. Experts
say, meanwhile, that it could need a subsidy
of £150/MWh ($222/MWh). The project's
developer says that Swansea is just a
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proof of concept, and that larger projects
will produce cheaper power.
There are also permitting uncertainties,
some warn, pointing to now-defunct
plans to build the $45 billion Severn
Barrage. The proposed 10-mile barrage
linking the English and Welsh coasts was
scrapped in 2013 for economic and environmental
reasons.
-Sonal Patel, associate editor
MHI Demonstrates
Wireless Power
Transmission
The wireless transmission of power by microwave
over long distances is viable, Japanese
technology firm Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries (MHI) has proved in a recent
ground demonstration test.
The company has been developing
the new technology for use in space solar
power systems (SSPS)-which it says
will be " the power generation systems of
the future. " As envisioned, the SSPS will
generate power on a geostationary satellite
36,000 kilometers above the Earth
using solar panels and beam that power
to Earth by microwave (the beams are far
below lethal levels of concentration, even
for prolonged exposure, developers say) or
recently developed solid state lasers. The
power received will then be converted to
electrical energy.
Far-fetched? Perhaps not. The Japanese
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
is backing MHI's efforts, even setting up
an incorporated foundation, Japan Space
Systems (JSS), to spearhead the technolPOWER
| May 2015

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POWER May 2015

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