Description:

Japan wants to maximise hydroelectricity and is willing to take on the world"s strongest ocean current to do so. That is exactly what the new Kairyu turbine, a genuine behemoth capable of converting ocean currents into a seemingly unlimited supply of electricity, can do.

IHI Corporation, a subsidiary of Japan"s Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries, has already been working on this technique for more than ten years. In 2017, the company teamed up with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) to put their innovations to the test.

The corporation finally completed a three-and-a-half-year test run in the waters off Japan"s southwestern coast in February 2022, marking a huge milestone. Kairyu, which means "ocean current," is the name of the 330-ton prototype. It consists of a 20-meter-long fuselage flanked by identical cylinders with a power generation system connected to an 11-meter-long turbine blade.

The machine can automatically identify the most optimal place to produce electricity through the water current once it is anchored to the ocean floor by an anchor line and power cables. It can float 50 metres beneath the water"s surface. The drag caused as it floats towards the surface generates the force applied by the turbines. To keep the turbine stable, the blades can also rotate in the reverse way.

IHI estimates that if the energy contained inside seas can be adequately exploited, it may create up to 205 gigawatts of electricity, nearly the same amount as the country presently generates from other sources.