Tide is the future: UP TO 10% of the island’s electricity could be produced by tidal power by 2014.

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.thisisguernsey.com/code/shownewsarticle.pl?ArticleID=003214

Tide is the future

by Simon Tostevin

UP TO 10% of the island’s electricity could be produced by tidal power by 2014.

That is the aim of Guernsey Electricity, which believes that a commitment to generating power locally from one or more renewable sources should be an integral part of the island’s future energy policy.

It wants to bring forward proposals for a major project by 2011.

Managing director Ian Watson said the company had decided upon tidal turbine generation after ruling out the cheapest source of renewable energy, in-island wind power, because of its lack of suitability.

...

“But we think tidal is the best way forward. The tide is more consistent than the wind. It’s there practically all the time and it would be less obtrusive. Nine-tenths of them would be under water.

...

[Stuckinthebush]

1. Similar to wave power?

I read a few months ago about harnessing the power of waves. Of course, no matter what you propose there are always critics. The critics of the wave power generator? Surfers. Yep...surfers said that it would decrease the wave sizes and really mess with their sport.

I guess the tidal power generators wouldn't have that effect.

[bluerum]

2. I agree - tides, waves, the wind and the sun. Tides and waves use relatively

low tech technology - inexpensive to build, durable and efficient.

[thunder rising]

3. I made this case on Dean for America (2004) and was blown out

It's way to inefficient ... blah blah blah ... nuclear !!!

[The2ndWheel]

4. Less obtrusive?

Because it's under water? No life under water?

I have no doubt we will try anything and everything. You just have to remember that we will still exist within physical reality, and anything that we do which increases our energy use will increase our impact on the planet/environment/habitat/ecosystem/etc. We can't escape that.

Once we go down this road, we won't be able to stop. We'll use a little power from the waves, then we'll make more efficient technology to harness more tidal energy for less so that more people can afford it, and then we'll use more, and increase our impact, and it will keep going in that direction. The only way it could be less obtrusive is if we act as corporations do, and privitize the profit, and externalize the cost. Less obtrusive to human beings, more and more obtrusive to non-human life.

More energy use, more impact. Period. End of story.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Energy Use => Environmental Imact

Yup, there is bound to be some impact on the environment. Now, will it be positive? Negative? How positive? How negative?

Will we be constructing artificial reefs? Will we be constructing chum factories? That's the question that's being asked in New York City's "East River."

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18567/

Power ebb: Verdant Power is installing six of these underwater turbines in New York’s East River. Each can capture up to 35 kilowatts of power from the river’s tidal currents.
Credit: Verdant Power

... "The whole point of doing kinetic hydro is to have a very small environmental footprint," says Dean Corren, Verdant's director of technology development, who designed the tidal turbines in the early 1980s while conducting energy research at New York University.

...

Before the company proceeds, however, it must monitor the first six turbines for 18 months to assuage concerns of federal and state regulators that the turbines, whose tips cut through the water at up to nine meters per second, won't chew up the river's fish. Such qualms have already delayed the first-of-its-kind project by several years. Corren says monitoring to date has shown that few fish venture into the strong currents flowing past the turbines, but he says the extensive studies will provide a critical foundation for future developments.

...

http://www.h2bidblog.com/clean-water-effort/tidal-turbines/

...

Marine Current Turbine

An advantage of the monopile design is that it effectively addresses the main concerns regarding barrages. There is no permanent blockade of estuaries or navigation channels and fish migration is not impeded. Additionally, these generating stations do not artificially raise or lower the tide in a local region; instead they sit quietly under water, well below ship keels, rotating with the ebb and flow of the tides.

New installations of this type have already begun. In April 2007, five 35kW turbines were installed in the East River in New York City; future plans include a ‘turbine farm’ of approximately 100 such turbines. With the close proximity to coastal cities and no obvious environmental drawbacks, the next generation of tidal turbines appears ready to meet the world’s demand for clean, dependable electricity.

[Nihil]

6. Now *that* type of tidal turbine I like!

> An advantage of the monopile design is that it effectively addresses the
> main concerns regarding barrages. There is no permanent blockade of
> estuaries or navigation channels and fish migration is not impeded.
> Additionally, these generating stations do not artificially raise or lower
> the tide in a local region; instead they sit quietly under water, well
> below ship keels, rotating with the ebb and flow of the tides.

That addresses all of my reservations about tidal power schemes with the
additional item that it consumes far less resource to construct than the
"barrage" type design.

Go for it!
:toast: