The Real-Sea Anchor Testing of Floating Kuroshio Turbine off Xiaoliuqiu

The overuse of fossil fuels has led to the gradual depletion of energy resources, resulting in rising energy procurement costs and economic crises in many countries. Additionally, the heavy reliance on fossil fuel combustion has significantly contributed to global warming, causing more frequent natural disasters driven by climate change. This situation has created an urgent need for the global development of clean and renewable energy sources. The 2015 Paris Agreement set the goal of “limiting global temperature rise to well below 2°C above preindustrial levels, while pursuing efforts to restrict the increase to 1.5°C.” Furthermore, it aims for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. As a result, countries around the world are increasingly prioritizing the development of renewable energy. Taiwan, an island with limited natural resources, relies on imports for more than 98% of its energy, significantly impacting its energy security. The majority of these imports are fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, which release large amounts of carbon dioxide when used, contributing to the greenhouse effect. In response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster following the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Taiwanese government reconsidered the country's energy supply security and gradually reduced the proportion of nuclear power in its energy mix, aiming to achieve a nuclear-free homeland by 2025. Given the twin goals of phasing out nuclear energy and achieving net-zero carbon emissions, the development of renewable energy has become a key policy objective. Among renewable energy sources, marine energy is an emerging field with significant potential due to its higher energy density compared to wind power. Marine energy involves converting the kinetic energy of moving water into electrical energy, including ocean current energy, thermal energy, tidal energy, and wave energy. Ocean current energy, in particular, is promising because ocean currents provide stable velocity and direction, making them a clean and reliable renewable energy source. Taiwan, surrounded by the ocean, benefits from the Kuroshio Current, which flows through its eastern waters. This current is part of the North Pacific Gyre, the second-largest ocean current in the world. The Kuroshio passes eastern Taiwan at a velocity of 1.0 to 1.5 m/s, with an energy potential of 20.7 to 22.1 Sv (10^{6} m^{3}/s) [1]. If properly harnessed, the Kuroshio Current could serve as a base-load power source. To meet the 2050 net-zero carbon goal, develop clean energy to reduce over-reliance on fossil fuels, and enhance energy self-sufficiency, Taiwan began research and development on Floating Kuroshio Turbine (FKT) systems in 2015, which is divided into two phases. The first phase, initiated in 2015 under the National Science Council's NEP-I and NEP-II projects, focused on the development of floating Kuroshio turbine systems, including simulation and design. This phase culminated in the successful completion of a 1:25 scale 800W floating Kuroshio turbine model, which was verified through towing channel tests in 2018. The second phase, led by the Ocean Affairs Council, began in 2019 and concentrated on scaling up the model to a 1:5 scale prototype and conducting field tests. In 2020, a 10kW prototype was developed and towing tested at sea, and in 2021, a 20kW floating Kuroshio turbine system was built and successfully tested for power generation during sea towing trials, This study conducted a 20kW system sea anchoring power generation test off the southwest coast of Xiaoliuqiu, Pingtung In 2022. The experimental results showed that with a flow velocity of 1 m/s, Generator 1 produced 3.72 kWh, while Generator 2 produced 3.38 kWh, resulting in a total output of 7.1 kWh, with an efficiency of 80%. These results demonstrate the feasibility of Kuroshio power generation, and the data will serve as a reference for the commercial design of the turbine system