Page 7 - NSYSU Research Highlights
P. 7
The World’s First Ocean Research on Underwater
Current Power Generation Mechatronics
Tested Successfully
Research on underwater mechatronics
at National Sun Yat-sen University is
Dr. Yang-Yih Chen, Distinguished Professor outstanding. Profs. Hsin-Hung Chen, Chau-
of the Department of Marine Environment and Chang Wang, and Yu-Cheng Chou co-led
Engineering, along with his research team their team at Institute of Undersea Technology
worked on the Kuroshio Power Generation developed underwater instruments, systems
Project for years. In 2016, the team finally and techniques for specific scientific research,
performed a successful field test to convert the such as collecting seafloor images and
current power into electricity in the sea near sediment samples for gas hydrate exploration
Eluanbi, on the Southeastern coast of Taiwan. and mineral resource investigation, etc. The
The power generating capacity reached an systems that they invented can reach as deep
average value of 26.31 kW at the current as 3000 meters under water. They integrate
speed of 1.27 m/s. They installed a mooring mechanical engineering, electrical engineering
system with a deep-water floating platform at and computer science in a multidisciplinary
a water depth of 900 meters; a 50 kW current model for the development of the cross-
energy system was triggered at the minimum field academic and industrial collaborations.
current speed of 0.45 m/s to run for 60 hours Besides, the development of the manned
nonstop. Such testing result attracted global submersible has been working for years, and
attention as the world’s first ocean current it is expected to see the first successful MIT
power generation demonstration test. If the human occupied vehicle (HOV) in the near
developing power generation system could be future.
installed along the east coast of Taiwan where
the Kuroshio flows,
it is expected
that the capacity
of current power
generation would
be a great force
in moving Taiwan
forward to become
a nuclear power-
free country. Dr. Yang-Yih Chen
Field test in the mainstream of
Kuroshio current on 24-30, July, 2016
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