Harnesssing Technology Maintenance Process of Tidal Energy Converter

Tidal energy has become an alternative solution for energy source in the future especially for countries with vast ocean such as Indonesia. Tidal energy converter is relatively new which resulted in different concept or even prototypes. The design of tidal energy converter must consider the simplicity of the maintenance process. How is the existing prototypes of tida energy converter maintenance process. This paper evaluate the existing prototype which use floating platform such as Larantuka strait and Madura strait prototype which use Darrieus turbine, T Files turbine which use gorlov turbine, BlueTEC and Horizontal Axis Tidal Current Turbine (HATCT) which use horizontal turbine. The evaluation are based on several criteria such as operational check, inspection and maintenance of harnessing technology or turbine arm where shaft, gearbox and generator are included in the arm which can be called as harnessing technology. The results of comparison shows that the tilted method of maintenance has advantages of visual inspection. The comparison also shows that there is still room for improvement for the design regarding the onsite maintenance by providing larger deck. As the answer of the comparison, a novel design concept is offered using turbine arm with motor for tilting the arm and larger deck area. (paper)