hello and welcome to technology update with demand so warring and resources limited the sun could be setting on an outdated era of global energy simply put new alternatives to invoke alternative sources or the best bet going forward energy directly from the sun is often the first thing that comes to mind when people mention solar power however when you really think about it the sun's responsible for far more than just fuelling solar panels wind farms are an indirect result of the sun's rays as convection currents drive global air streams and create the majority of the globe. and in fact there'd be no plants or trees to make biofuels

from if there was no sun to spur on photosynthesis in the first place. as those plants die off and decompose thermal heat and pressure slowly turns those into fossil fuels like coal and oil however there is one source of energy that has no apparent connection to the sun. instead the moon is to think for the motion of the ocean that we know as the tides is relative proximity means it exerts a much stronger influence than the sun. as the moon circles the globe the water closest to it gets pulled out words especially at the equator there's also a smaller bulge on the other side as the solid earth is literally pulled away from the oceans furthest from the moon when the sun moon and earth are aligned we get the strongest tides and if you're in the right place at the right time the moon even provides enough energy to surf on its title bores funnel incoming water down narrow river ways. in this rights reflect the eternal nature of the moon's tidal power. and the idea of using the tides for humans purposes has been around for ages

several hundred years ago enterprising engineers can. people have looked to harness the tide for electricity generation in the twentieth century a number of projects around the proposed. economic. time it looked as if the proponents of title power. but sixty three. blocked off to start construction on what would be the first industrial power station in the world in the process. meters of water were displaced seventy five construction site. twenty four term passive two hundred forty megawatts. day but the hefty price tag dampen enthusiasm for such plants in the country but that didn't deter others who knew it could be done better and more

cheaply. today. around the world. but. i think it's safe to say. that was the driving force behind.

the concept even before. thirty eight when he was. he had already contemplated the idea of a power station. on this since while working. he travelled. home which is remarkable for us. despite the fact that it's up in the arctic circle more months it was already a well established and thriving port in the one nine hundred sixty s. . the industrial might for innovative engineering projects like baby. because of the. fluctuations in the water level as the tide rushes are more pronounced than otherwise would be the views can be breathtaking when the last ice age having stripped away the top layer sediment leaving mostly exposed water.

purposes the most ideal spot for the world's second title power plant was here. it was selected because it's. connected directly to the via an especially outlet compared with a concurrent competing project in france. much less invasive site prep was required. there was absolutely nothing nothing at all people thought were going about it. there was no way you can build a tidal power plant like you can and. perhaps the most important breakthrough was a revolutionary method of construction. powerhouse. greatly reduced environmental damage like that scene in france. the climate proved to be another potential obstacle. to find

a concrete composition that would survive such severe winters. and we managed to make concrete. that we had invented here that we developed. that is the core of the entire facility. so once the construction was complete they simply attached a joint pontoon filled the dock with water and tugs the whole complex to the chosen site along the way they took the opportunity to monitor how the structure fared in

rough seas in total the trip from more months to measure just a hair under one hundred kilometers. an hour iris triumph. he had done this before everything went well it took us one day to transport the planes. mounted underwater foundation this was a great success and once we had done it we got universal recognition. in the decade since those accomplishments have withstood the test of time and have been adopted the world over the floating method has become an industry staple project engineers everywhere cut costs by as much as up to fifty percent and the station itself has also held up well against father time the original power house operated its entire useful life without problems or substantive repair and when engineers tested the state of the two thousand they found that the walls of the structure were in great shape even after nearly forty years of constant freezing and thawing of the arctic

frigid waters. at the center of this russian engineering feat a french heart turbine with rotatable propellers was the most complex and most expensive part of the power plant it could generate electricity as the tide came in with water rushing into the blocked off day as well as in reverse thanks to the special made blade system however most of agree that it's often better to just use in one direction because as the water rushes back out to sea it operates at ninety percent efficiency but only fifty percent in the other direction. we bought. us. from friends it was a. but also very complex and expensive one of the units was equipped with a french turban and the other one was left empty forty five years ago we had hoped it would eventually make it. and so we did here it is an orthogonal turban.

based on what's called a turbine and uses blade shape similar to airplane we. can vary in depends on the speed of the water. of which way the water flows in the turbine spins in the same direction with no significant change in efficiency and after being tested out for a few years and eventually found its way into a brand new title power plant that was being added onto the existing structure. to produce the new turbine and powerhouse hydro turned to mush one of russia's leadership makers and a testament to the relative simplicity of the new voter system the whole complex complete with turbine generators was constructed in around six months as a factory just outside of the white city of hunger and in two thousand and six following as much fanfare that would normally accompany the launch of a new ocean liner the floating power plant made its maiden final voyage to keep.

just like the original it was towed on pontoons into the bay instead of tearing down the existing structure they left it in place and simply attached. to the face of it which by the way had been made a monument to russian science and technology. outfitted with new digital equipment the original control room still remains the hub of human activities here surprisingly simple an actual operation. power plant can be. more than just a few workers. need. any machine. so. the process of converting.

tricity is rather straightforward as well get the turbine spinning it operates pretty much like all other power generation plants out there because of the. vertical. turbine. to create electricity. construction. past you. produced so too was the generator. here. on a tried and true fact to construct probably the second most important part of the

station. electro machine building factory as one of the country's top makers of generators. including those special built for small and medium sized hydro electricity plants and then. prepping for the tidal power plant. the fact that it has to be floated out to. particular challenges. in the region of fifty to sixty tons these generators are far more likely to. face to face with water. energy from the vertical shaft to a horizontal one but whatever the arrangement over water the generator is only as useful as a turbine below that power is a really good. turbans were also developed and tested in canada and japan because the best they were able to achieve an efficiency factor of thirty percent. so they gave up working on such projects and went there with both and we

picked it up we changed the blades as well as the section to. end today our turbans efficiency factor is as high as any two percent. that is. thirty eight percent to eighty two. the ones as a result our design is more energy efficient than the french turban which was considered the classical type instead of this work lessee.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something

else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know. welcome to the big picture. it took years if not decades to get that turbine just right but now with that in hand institute of structures is ready for the next challenge to the next logical

stage to achieve. these measures in megawatts. difference. the roller. in the waters of the. power station. five point seven. the power house itself will be equipped with a tree. give it a total capacity of twelve however given that the power house is part of the entire

construction. by using the. project. three fold. power plants. crashes into. the rising forces air inside the. electricity. peak. and the turbine and creating a tricity. together to create more powerful.

perhaps most interesting. power plants. previously simple concrete retaining walls. institute in moscow. this is the model of our air driven orthogonal turbine with a fan that generates an air stream at a pressure of up to eight kilo pascals. the air rushes through a pressure air duct and into the turbine this is exactly the kind of turbine there will be installed on the new groundbreaking russian wave power plant which scientific research institute of energy structures has just finished developing. the term minus connected to a thirty generator. there are sensors installed here including pressure sensors angular rate sensors and turbine air speed sensors. their readings enable us to evaluate a turbines performance. we have an analysis of all these data and

studies them to find patterns and correlations. here's where the incoming data get analyzed. even the temperature of various parts of the construction. they can monitor. conditions different. because the. same direction of the flow it's ideal for use in the water columns in which the direction of. of course there are other kinds of converters out there but these engineers are confident that they're designed for something others simply can't use to some power plant like a snake but that's naik often gets carried away by the current. the installation is too heavy complex and difficult to secure with all the joints that serve to generate electricity. there are also hydraulic turbines.

but their design is way too intricate and leaves something to be desired. there are floating power stations but they also get carried away. by and large humanity is constantly. first we came up with a concept of an orthogonal turbine and then we successfully applied it in designing a way for our plan. and the ground work for including such wave columns in future projects has already gotten started this past year alone hydro built a prototype up and. it will produce electricity for the local grid as well as give the engineers back at the institute precious data to improve the next generation of ocean energy snatchers. could help. dealing with an inevitable.

ok proceeding. even if. it was. since the tide only comes in and out twice a day all of its potential energy has to be harnessed in short bursts to help smooth out this and other peaks there is another type of hydro plant out there this one requires an artificial lake but relies on the natural power of gravity.

energy. electricity generated. take advantage of lower prices and pump water back into the upper reservoir more often than not. demand in the morning and. balanced approach to energy. pumped storage power. turbines each with a capacity of two hundred megawatts of generation mode and two hundred twenty megawatts and pumping about it was designed to regulate the energy balance in moscow region and neighboring areas in central russia the power plant was built

back in the one nine hundred eighty s. in the one nine hundred ninety s. into reach designed capacity in two thousand which is currently operates at full power. this practice pumped storage power stations are normally placed in mountainous areas with greater water pressure european part of russia doesn't have the kind of terrain however still managed to set up a fairly efficient facility in spite of an average incline of around one hundred. stations efficiency factor is seventy four percent of you couldn't hear it as station is russian made including its turbines manufactured by power machines and its engine generator is produced by the general electric heavy engineering plant that's also part of the individual capacity of each turbine two hundred megawatts is quite powerful a few pumped storage power plants in the world can boast that. as you just heard the workhorse of the whole plant is made by a company called power machines located in st petersburg they specialize in big

powerful equipment like this giant ship propeller the turbines for the pumped storage are being constructed at the company's metal factory which has been in operation for over one hundred fifty years over the decades is churned out around twenty seven hundred turbines with a total combined capacity of over three hundred gigawatts. the factories making four bi directional turbines each of which can crank out two hundred ten megawatts those new turbines are needed because at present in moscow region there's a pressing need for new capacity. as a result loose hydro is pushing ahead with the second phase here that. it's ok to seven hundred fifty meters south of the existing facility design work started in two thousand says. and the first cement was poured in mid two thousand and eight as one of the biggest construction projects in russia at the moment something like sixty million cubic meters of earth to be moved is approaching suez canal like

proportions the new expansion comes with a price tag of just over two billion dollars. this gives us a perfect overview of the current state of the construction site really. we can see how far along. in terms of completion of. the water ducts measure a seven and a half meters in diameter are made out of twenty individual sections three bars welded together before they're hold over to the main construction site where concrete is eventually for in the end two hundred thirty six cubic metres of water will be able to burst through the pipes every second similar foreign facilities have chosen to use. a water pipe made of metal is prone to rupture when we were designing our power station it would be considered employing such metal and even an underground conduit but in the end. safety factors we decided to may not be the best in comparison to those made out of metal it is

one hundred percent. according to roos hydras plants the first two turbines will be in place by the end of two thousand and twelve while the third is slated for next year in the fourth in two thousand and fourteen and that really can't come soon enough with analysts saying that moscow region alone could use an additional one and a half gigawatts of spare capacity in order to get the added waters are quickly as possible the structure of the messenger later or maybe part is taking place around the clock with five thousand people employed in three shifts generators will boost existing capacity by eight hundred forty megawatts one will reach that powerhouse by traveling eight hundred pipes the new twelve million cubic meter pool is being built right next to the existing. one end of the. lower reservoir rather than build an entirely new one will be the fourth largest pump in the world it's obvious that if russia should make use of its immense potential for tidal power generation and

put it into practice storage power plants would definitely come in handy particularly to compensate for tidal plants natural cyclical. together or separately these technologies are unlikely to. needs for electricity but they could soon play a growing role in completing the overall energy picture especially by adding stability to sometimes unreliable sources like solar and wind but most important of all the some of the greenest methods of power generation out there interestingly enough perhaps the only ones that don't depend on the sun in one way or the other only time will ever become more than just a need. for this edition of technology we'll see you next time and until then enjoy the ride.

more news today violence has once again flared up. and these are the images from seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are today.