NEW ZEALAND

Key R&D Institutions and Relevant R&D Projects:
 

• NIWA – National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research – Government-owned environmental research agency with a focus on atmospheric and aquatic environments that operates ocean-going vessels (www.niwa.co.nz).
   
• HERA – Heavy Engineering Research Association (http://www.hera.org.nz/MainMenu).
   
• GNS - Government-owned research agency with a focus on Earth, geoscience and isotope research and consultancy services (www.gns.cri.nz).
   
• Univ. Otago, Department of Marine Science (http://www.otago.ac.nz/marinescience).
   
• WELTEC (https://www.weltec.ac.nz/).
   
• AUT (www.aut.ac.nz/study-at-aut/study-areas/engineering/undergraduate/maritime-majors).
   
• Callaghan Innovation (http://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/).

The New Zealand group led by Dr Ross Vennell has made significant advances in quantifying theoretical impacts of large turbine arrays. This is enabling ideas around tuning and temporal sequencing of tuning to maximise energy extraction for minimum flow disturbance. References: Vennell, R., Funke, S. W., Draper, S., Stevens, C., & Divett, T. (2015). Designing large arrays of tidal turbines: A synthesis and review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 41, 454-472.

Flow disturbance from a modest array of turbines (Divett, Vennell and Stevens. “Optimization of multiple turbine arrays in a channel with tidally reversing flow by numerical modelling with adaptive mesh.” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 371, no. 1985 (2013): 20120251)