Qualla: Evopod https://qualla.com/evopod en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:16 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/evopod-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Evopod https://qualla.com/evopod Evopod: Introduction https://qualla.com/evopod/ Photo credit Mindlessworker, Public domain. The Strangford Narrows squeeze 150 square kilometres of sea inlet through a kilometre-wide gap four times a day. The current that comes out of this bottleneck is one of the strongest tidal flows in the British Isles, and from 2008 onwards there was something rather strange floating in it. A blue and white pod, ten metres long, with three vertical struts piercing the water and a turbine hidden in its submerged hull. The pod weathervaned around its midwater mooring buoy, always pointing into the flow, generating electricity on both the flood and the ebb. This was Evopod, a one-tenth-scale tidal energy prototype from a small company in North Shields, and the Strangford Narrows were its proving ground.

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Image: Mindlessworker | Public domain

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/evopod-wp/gcsj-evopod-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Evopod: The Idea of a Floating Turbine https://qualla.com/evopod/ Photo credit Mindlessworker, Public domain. Most tidal energy schemes put their turbines on the seabed, like underwater windmills. Evopod inverted the logic. The fastest tidal flow is near the surface, where the water is not slowed by friction against the bottom, and the power available rises with the cube of the velocity....

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Image: Mindlessworker | Public domain

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/evopod-wp/gcsj-evopod-the-idea-of-a-floating-turbine.mp3 0:06 2 full Evopod: The Rotating Buoy https://qualla.com/evopod/ Photo credit Mindlessworker, Public domain. The mooring was the unusual part. A single midwater buoy, anchored to the seabed by four spread mooring lines, but with a twist: the buoy itself was built in two pieces. A fixed part, geo-locked by the anchor lines, and a rotating part linked to Evopod by a rigid yoke. The turbin...

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]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/evopod-wp/gcsj-evopod-the-rotating-buoy.mp3 0:06 3 full Evopod: Strangford Narrows, 2008 https://qualla.com/evopod/ Photo credit Mindlessworker, Public domain. In 2008 the one-tenth-scale Evopod was installed in the Strangford Narrows near Portaferry, under the umbrella of the Supergen Marine Energy Research Programme and in collaboration with Queen's University Belfast. For two years it sat in the flow and recorded data without being c...

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]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/evopod-wp/gcsj-evopod-strangford-narrows-2008.mp3 0:06 4 full Evopod: Sanda Sound and After https://qualla.com/evopod/ Photo credit Mindlessworker, Public domain. From Strangford, Oceanflow Energy moved up in scale. A 35-kilowatt grid-connected E35 turbine, developed with Siemens and carrying a 4.5-metre-diameter rotor, was deployed at Sanda Sound in South Kintyre under a Scottish WATERS grant. The E35 ran from August 2014 until September ...

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]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/j/evopod-wp/gcsj-evopod-sanda-sound-and-after.mp3 0:06 5 full