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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Sun Jun 15, 2014, 06:32 AM Jun 2014

There Is One Problem With Harnessing Britain's Tides

http://www.businessinsider.com/there-is-one-problem-with-harnessing-britains-tides-2014-6



If building wind farms at sea is difficult and expensive, installing turbines beneath the waves is far more so. Currents batter them; salt corrodes them. Yet Britain's coasts have become a playground for engineers and entrepreneurs intent on producing electricity from the tides. Their efforts are beginning to generate a buzz.

Most of the world's (at present puny) tidal power comes from barrages across estuaries. Yet long-mooted plans to wall up the River Severn, Britain's longest, have foundered because of high costs and worries about wildlife. Instead, scientists are focusing on two newer technologies, both of which could soon be tested in commercial schemes. This puts the country "completely at the forefront" of tidal technology, says Gareth Potter of Swansea University.

The first sort is found in the Pentland Firth, the fast-flowing strait between Orkney and the Scottish mainland. This year Atlantis Resources, a marine-power firm, plans to start installing turbines on the seabed--it hopes to plug in 260 by 2020, each about 18 metres in diameter.

That would create an underwater power plant with about the same oomph as a small gas-fired station. Researchers at Oxford University think the Pentland Firth could one day generate more than 40% of Scotland's power, if it were packed with similar gizmos.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/there-is-one-problem-with-harnessing-britains-tides-2014-6#ixzz34hd9w5vK
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