Bearings for marine current turbines

Tidal current turbines are among the latest developments in renewable energy. Installed undersea, the turbines are driven by the tidal flow of water. Bearing manufacturer NKE Austria supplies the bearings for the gearboxes of these 'underwater windmills'.

The 1.2 MW SeaGen tidal current turbine has been developed by leading tidal turbines technology developer Marine Current Turbines Ltd (MCT) based in Bristol, United Kingdom.

The turbine works much like an underwater windmill, but is driven by the tidal current rather than air. Unlike wind energy, which is subject to the random nature of the weather, tidal flows are much more predictable.

Moreover, due to the higher density of water compared to air, underwater turbines do not need to be as large as wind turbines. SeaGen has been installed in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough and claims to be the world’s first commercial tidal current turbine.

The SeaGen turbine’s gearbox has been designed by Orbital2 Ltd, a leading UK developer of renewable energy gearboxes, and is being manufactured in the Czech Republic by Wikov MGI.

The gearbox developers and manufacturers have selected NKE Austria to supply the bearings.

NKE supplies nine different types of bearings for the gearboxes, including deep groove ball bearings, tapered roller bearings, cylindrical roller bearings and four-point contact ball bearings, with outer diameters from 300 to 1090 mm.

Besides bearings for tidal current turbines, NKE supplies bearings for other renewable energy sectors, especially wind energy.