Marine currents, i.e. water currents in oceans and rivers, constitute a large renewable energy resource. This thesis presents research done on the subject of marine current energy conversion in a broad sense. A review of the tidal energy resource in Norway is presented, with the conclusion that tidal currents ought to be an interesting option for Norway in terms of renewable energy. The design of marine current energy conversion devices is studied. It is argued that turbine and generator cannot be seen as separate entities but must be designed and optimised as a unit for a given conversion site. The influence of support structure for the turbine blades on the efficiency of the turbine is studied, leading to the conclusion that it may be better to optimise a turbine for a lower flow speed than the maximum speed at the site. The construction and development of a marine current energy experimental station in the River Dalälven at Söderfors is reported. Measurements of the turbine's power coefficient indicate that it is possible to build efficient turbines for low flow speeds. Experiments at the site are used for investigations into different load control methods and for validation of a numerical model of the energy conversion system and the model's ability to predict system behaviour in response to step changes in operational tip speed ratio. A method for wake measurements is evaluated and found to be useful within certain limits. Simple models for turbine runaway behaviour are derived, of which one is shown by comparison with experimental results to predict the behaviour well.

Tidal currents and rivers are promising sources of renewable energy given that suitable turbines for kinetic energy conversion are developed. To be economically and technically feasible, a velocity distribution that can give a high degree of utilization (or capacity factor), while the ratio of maximum to rated velocity is low would be preferable. The rated velocity is defined as the velocity at which rated power is achieved. Despite many attempts to estimate the resource, however, reports on the possible degree of utilisation from tidal currents and rivers are scarce. In this paper the velocity distribution from a number of regulated rivers, unregulated rivers and tidal currents have been analysed regarding the degree of utilisation, the fraction of converted energy and the ratio of maximum to rated velocity. Two methods have been used for choosing the rated velocity; one aiming at a high fraction of converted energy and one aiming at a high degree of utilisation. Using the first method, with a rated velocity close to the maximum velocity, it is unlikely that the turbine will reach the cut-out velocity. This results in, on average, a degree of utilisation of 23% for regulated rivers, 19% for unregulated rivers and 17% for tidal currents while converting roughly 30-40% of the kinetic energy. Choosing a rated velocity closer to the mean velocity resulted in, on average, a degree of utilisation of 57% for regulated rivers, 52% for unregulated rivers and 45% for tidal currents. The ratio of maximum to rated velocity would still be no higher than 2.0 for regulated rivers, 1.2 for unregulated rivers and 1.6 for tidal currents. This implies that the velocity distribution of both rivers and tidal currents is promising for kinetic energy conversion. These results, however, do not include weather related effects or extreme velocities such as the 50-year velocity. A velocity factor is introduced to describe what degree of utilisation can be expected at a site. The velocity factor is defined as the ratio U-max/U-rate at the desired degree of utilisation, and serves as an early indicator of the suitability of a site.

Producing electricity from marine renewable resources is a research area that develops continuously. The field of tidal energy is on the edge to progress from the prototype stage to the commercial stage. However, tidal resource characterization, and the effect of tidal turbines on the flow, is still an ongoing research area in which this thesis aims to contribute. In this thesis, measurements of flow velocities have been performed at three kinds of sites. Firstly, a tidal site has been investigated for its resource potential in a fjord in Norway. Measurements have been performed with an acoustic Doppler current profiler to map the spatial and temporal characteristics of the flow. Results show that currents are in the order of 2 m/s in the center of the channel. Furthermore, the flow is highly bi-directional between ebb and flood flows. The site thus has potential for in-stream energy conversion. Secondly, a river site serves as an experimental site for a marine current energy converter that has been designed at Uppsala University and deployed in Dalälven, Söderfors. The flow rate at the site is regulated by an upstream hydro power plant, making the site suitable for experiments on the performance of the vertical axis turbine in a natural environment. The turbine was run in steady discharge flows and measurements were performed to characterize the extent of the wake. Lastly, at an ocean current site, the effect that transiting ferries may have on submerged devices was investigated. Measurements were conducted with two sonar systems to obtain an underwater view of the wake caused by a propeller and a water jet thruster respectively. Furthermore, the variability of the intermittent renewable sources wind, solar, wave and tidal energy was investigated for the Nordic countries. All of the sources have distinctly different variability features, which is advantageous when combining power generated from them and introducing it on the electricity grid. Tidal variability is mainly due to four aspects: the tidal regime, the tidal cycle, local bathymetry causing turbulence, asymmetries etc. and weather effects. Models of power output from the four sources was set up and combined in different energy mixes for a “highly renewable” and a “fully renewable” scenario. By separating the resulting power time series into different frequency bands (long-, mid-, mid/short-, and short-term components) it was possible to minimize the variability on different time scales. It was concluded that a wise combination of intermittent renewable sources may lower the variability on short and long time scales, but increase the variability on mid and mid/short time scales. The tidal power variability in Norway was then investigated separately. The predictability of tidal currents has great advantages when planning electricity availability from tidal farms. However, the continuously varying tide from maximum power output to minimum output several times per day increases the demand for backup power or storage. The phase shift between tidal sites introduces a smoothing effect on hourly basis but the tidal cycle, with spring and neap tide simultaneously in large areas, will inevitably affect the power availability.

The focus of this thesis is research on the performance of very low speed direct drive permanent magnet generators for energy conversion from marine and tidal currents. Various aspects involved in the design of these generators and their electromagnetic modelling using the finite element simulations are presented. For a detailed study, a 5 kW prototype generator has been designed and constructed based on finite element based simulations. Several experiments were conducted on the prototype generator. The experimental results were compared with the corresponding case simulations on the designed generator. The differences between the results predicted by the simulations and those predicted by the measurements were less than 10%. The part and overload performance of the generator has been investigated and it is found from both simulations and measurements that the generator is capable to efficiently operate at varying speeds. The tests on the experimental generator were made for speeds between 2 and 16 rpm and for load variations of 0.5 to 2 per unit. In this thesis it is shown that it is possible to design a very low speed direct drive generator for more or less any given marine current site and this is beneficial for projects aiming to develop a technical and economical viable marine current energy conversion system.