NUMERICAL STUDY of the EFFECT of CURRENT VELOCITY on the POWER PRODUCTION by a HORIZONTAL AXIS MARINE CURRENT TURBINE and FEASIBILITY of USING IT in the STRAIT of HORMUZ

World energy consumption has increased by sixty percent for thirty years (1980-2010) and it reached to about 16000 GW in 2010[1]. According to increasing globalpopulation growth this demand will continue in the future. In the other hand, due to the rate of increase in pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, the need for renewable energy has increased in the world. Considerable portion of this energy can be extracted from the sea. Marine renewable energy can be divided into several types, including wave energy, tidal energy, ocean thermal energy, ocean current energy and salinity gradient energy. The tidal energy is also divided to tidal potential energy and tidal kinetic energy. Due to its special geographical position and climate conditions, there is a good potential for exploitation of marine renewable energy in Iran. This country has a marine boundary of about 2700 km in its southern and northern regions, including 1259 km with the Persian Gulf, 784 km with the Gulf of Oman, and 657 km with the Caspian Sea[2]. Thus the need for further research on marine renewable energy resources and their extraction sites in Iran has increased more than before.