The University of South Wales (USW)(www.southwales.ac.uk) is leading a £200,000 research project that will look at new ways to generate power from the tides.

Daphne O’Doherty, head of the School of Engineering at USW, is heading up the project, which also involves Cardiff, Southampton and Strathclyde universities. The focus will be on the feasibility of extracting energy from low-velocity tidal flows.

Dr O’Doherty said: “There has been a lot of research into generating energy from fast-flowing waters driven by the large tidal range of the seas around the British Isles. These waters mostly flow faster than 3m/sec, so they are strong enough to efficiently generate power.

“However, there are many parts of the world — including large areas of the UK — where the waters around the coast do not flow as quickly and haven’t been the subject of a great deal of research. What this project will look at is whether a slower tidal flow — under 2m/sec — can be used for energy generation.”

USW and Cardiff University will be undertaking the numerical modelling, Strathclyde University will be looking at blade design, and Southampton University will lead on the design strategy for a turbine system.

All four partners will collaborate on the overall design of a feasible system.