Tidal hydro power?

Question

find a bay and make a tidal hydro power station along the line of dams making hydro electric power, except the energy needed is provided naturally by the tides! any ideas? plausible??

Answer 1

There is a tidal power station on the Severn estuary and various other parts of the earth.

See this link.

http://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/publ...

Answer 2

This type of renewable energy leaves very little carbon footprint,we need to use it more.

Answer 3

Such power stations already exist. France has a tidal barrage (dam) at La Rance, producing 240MW at peak capacity.

Such a barrage has/is being considered for the Bristol Channel. It would cost an enormous amount of money and destroy the mud flats around the River Severn but it would also produce 7% of the UK's energy demand. If one was ever built it would save about 18 million tons of coal.

Despite what Trevor says Russia is not the largest user... France is. Russia has one small 0.5MW barrage but does have the most potential to use tidal power.

Also, it would have a massive carbon footprint as it would require millions of tonnes of concrete to construct. It would however produce no CO2 once in operation.

It could also work by using offshore 'wind turbine' place under water. See these...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

http://home.clara.net/darvill/altenerg/t...

Answer 4

In process.  I am involved in making parts for such a system but I am sworn to secrecy so I can't tell you what company it is.

Answer 5

Plausible and already in operation is several locations around the world.

Typically uses permanent or semi permanent barrages.  Permanent barrages trap water at high tide, when the tide goes out the stored water is released and in doing so it drives turbines.  A variation on this uses sluices through which the incoming tide pours driving turbines as it does so.  At the peak of the high tide the sluice is closed and the water is stored until low tide when it's released.

The semi permanent barrage follows a similar system but is raised or pulled into position at high tide thus creating a dam behind which the water is retained for release when the tide goes out.

Russia makes the greatest use of this technology and generates more power this way than the rest of the world.  Two locations being considered are Canada's Bay of Fundy and England's Avonmouth - these are the two higehst tidal ranges in the world and would be ideal locations for a tide entrapment scheme.

Answer 6

As has been pointed out not a new idea. Already being used.

The down sides are:

1 few locations have enough tidal difference between high and low tide to make it economic. And worse many of the ones that do are in remote locations far from where the power will be used.

2 the costs of construction are high. A lot high than many other alternatives generally, thats why there are not more of them.

3 the amount of coast line that would be affected would be considerable and usually the effects would be quite ecologically harmfull. Usually you would destroy valuable habitats.

On the up side dispite what was said about needing a lot of concrete, big dames of this sort work quite well when made of rock fill as are many land based dams. This reduces their carbon footprint quite a bit.

Tidal hydro is just one of many good renewable ideas.

Answer 7

Yes, it works for the French!