Wind, Waves and Tides: Alternative Energy Systems

The wind is a part of our everyday experience. Anyone who has lived on a coast or even vacationed there is familiar with waves and tides. That these naturally-occurring fluid flows contain energy is intuitively recognizable and indeed technologies to harvest wind and tidal energy were in use centuries ago. Our current quest for sustainable energy sources has led us to refocus once again on the potential of wind, waves and tides. This course will explain and describe the technologies to extract energy from each. The strengths and weaknesses of these various technologies will be discussed and illustrated through case studies of specific installations.

MODULE 1 - WIND ENERGY

• Part A  Wind sources and influences (week 1)• Part B  Fundamentals of wind energy technology (week 2)• Part C  Predicting wind turbine output (week 3)• Part D  Economic and environmental issues (week 4)• Part E  Case studies (week 4)

MODULE 2 – WAVE ENERGY

• Part A  Wave energy fundamentals (week 5)• Part B  Wave energy converters (week 6)

MODULE 3 – TIDAL ENERGY (week 7)