Description
The Haishan TPP is noteworthy as it is the only linked-basins plant in existence in the world a plant featuring a high and a low-basin with the power plant in between these two basins, generating energy from water flowing from the high into the low-basin generating the power in only one direction. The inlet gate was set up at one projecting beach on a sea island. The station was placed at the link-up of the high and low reservoirs. The water outlet gate was set up at the southeast of the low reservoir. The area of the upper reservoir is 25.33 hectares and 2.53 hectares at lower reservoir. The average tidal range is 4.91m. The plant serves an isolated community of 760 families. This unit operated continuously. The energy was used partly to pump fresh water for domestic and irrigation use into the community reservoir.
Location
Maoyan Island, Zhejiang Province, China
Project Progress
This power station was completed and put to use in 1975 which is the earliest existing marine power plant. Now the installed capacity is 0.25MW. In 2017, the power station planned to carry out a technical renovation project to upgrade the old generating units, develop two dual generating units of 0.25MW each, 0.5MW total capacity, and dredge the reservoir area. The renovation project was approved by the local government at the end of 2016. By the end of June 2019, the cumulative power generation exceeded 1,200 *104kWh.
Key Environmental Issues
The mud and sand conditions of this power station are similar to that of Jiangxia power station. Yet its inlet was placed at the shallow shoal on projecting shore, where the two streams converge, carrying more sand and mud, more easily to be silted up. So when this power station is in operation, its sedimentation is so serious that it has silted up 63cm during eight years. One would expect however that, like most other seas, the Yellow and East China Seas are host to migratory fish species which need access to coastal bays, estuaries and rivers for their feeding and procreation. To what extent this has been taken into account by China's TPP engineering community is not clear.
Papers, Reports, Research Studies
- Overview of Ocean Renewable Energy in China
- The Practice of Comprehensive Silt Proof Measures in Tide Power Stations
- Shu Quanying, Chen Cheng, Zheng Xiongwei. (2017). Kinetic Energy Estimation and Analysis of Zhejiang Haishan Tidal Power Station. Zhejiang Water Conservancy Science and Technology, 000 (006), 23-26.