Submersible power plant for producing electrical power
AssigneeMinesto AB
InventorBjörn Bergqvist
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A submersible power plant and a method for providing a submersible power plant. The submersible power plant includes an anchoring provided at a minimum depth and a vehicle including at least one wing. The vehicle is arranged to be secured to the anchoring by at least one tether rotatably attached to the anchoring by an anchoring coupling and attached to the vehicle by at least one vehicle coupling. The submersible power plant is completely submerged in a body of fluid both during operation and non-operation of the submersible power plant and the tether has an unextended tether length between 2-20 times a wingspan of the wing, specifically between 3-12 times the wingspan of the wing, more specifically between 5-10 times the wingspan of the wing.
Claims15
A submersible power plant for producing electrical power, the submersible power plant comprising an anchoring provided at a minimum depth and a vehicle comprising at least one wing, the vehicle being arranged to be secured to the anchoring by means of at least one tether rotatably attached to the anchoring by means of an anchoring coupling and attached to the vehicle by means of at least one vehicle coupling, the vehicle being arranged to move in a predetermined trajectory by means of a fluid stream passing the wing during operation of the submersible power plant, the vehicle being arranged to stay in a position essentially above the anchoring during non-operation of the submersible power plant,
- wherein the submersible power plant is completely submerged in a body of fluid both during operation and non-operation of the submersible power plant and wherein the tether has an unextended tether length between 2-20 times a wingspan of the wing,
- wherein the tether is releasably attached to the anchoring coupling and the anchoring coupling is releasable from the anchoring,
- wherein the anchoring coupling is movably attached to an anchor line running from the anchoring to a surface of the body of fluid, such that the anchoring coupling and tether can be brought to and from the surface, and
- wherein the anchoring coupling is buoyant.
A method for providing a submersible power plant for producing electrical power, the submersible power plant comprising an anchoring and a vehicle comprising at least one wing, the vehicle being arranged to be secured to the anchoring by means of at least one tether rotatably attached to the anchoring by means of an anchoring coupling and attached to the vehicle by means of at least one vehicle coupling, the vehicle being arranged to move in a predetermined trajectory by means of a fluid stream passing the wing during operation of the submersible power plant, the vehicle being arranged to stay in position essentially above the anchoring during non-operation of the submersible power plant, wherein the method comprises:
- providing the anchoring at a minimum depth in a body of fluid,
- attaching the tether to the anchoring, the tether being connected to the vehicle,
- providing the tether with a buoyant anchoring coupling releasably attached to the anchoring, and
- providing the anchoring with an anchor line to which the anchoring coupling is movably attached,
- wherein the tether has an unextended tether length such that the submersible power plant is completely submerged in the body of fluid during operation and non-operation of the submersible power plant and the unextended tether length is between 2-20 times the wingspan of the wing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.