Azerbaijan National Academy of Science

In Japan for the first time in the world have been tested installations for the production of electricity from underwater currents of the ocean. The installation consists of three 20-meter-deep cylinders each 20 meters long. The total capacity of the facility is estimated at one hundred kilowatts.

The power plant consists of three 20-meter-deep cylinders with a length of 20 meters each. Inside two of them are placed generators with blades up to 11 meters in diameter, the third is designed to ensure a stable position of the system. The total power of the plant is estimated at 100 kilowatts, during the experiments its maximum value did not exceed 30 kilowatts.

The installation is located on the path of the current Kuroshio (Pacific analogue of the Gulf Stream). Equipment for the power plant was manufactured by IHI and the Organization for the Development of New Energy and Industrial Technologies. The experiment, which lasted five days in the south-western Japanese island of Kutinosima (Kagoshima Prefecture), was recognized as successful.

Experts plan to continue testing the underwater power plant. The full launch of the facility is planned for 2020.