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A scale-up of tidal energy projects aims to expand capacity, improve reliability and prove their worth to investors as a renewable energy source.
It's clean, doesn't spoil the landscape and is totally predictable, yet tidal power is one of the least exploited forms of renewable energy.
The challenge of building out at sea, the toll the salt water can take on equipment and the huge strain the currents can put on components has meant that it is seen as an expensive endeavour.
'The sea is one of the world's most challenging environments,' said Simon Forrest, chief executive of Nova Innovation, a tidal power company based in Edinburgh, UK. 'However, technical innovation and learnings from the wind sector are being used to make the dream of harnessing energy from the tide a reality.'
Last year, Nova Innovation deployed the world's first array of tidal turbines, which were connected to the electricity grid in Shetland, UK.
Predictability and the theoretical energy that can be captured are both attractive, but fouling and wear-and-tear remain barriers.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Saturday October 28 2017, @04:39PM (6 children)
It's better than nothing. I'll buy that windows kill more birds than turbines do, but there are also many more windows than turbines. I'd like to see bird deaths per square inch of surface area, rather than a raw total.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2017, @05:03PM (2 children)
> many more windows than turbines
That's the key. Further, modern wind turbines are very low "solidity" -- while huge diameter, most of that circle is open air. From a discussion in https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24250-catch-the-breeze/ [newscientist.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2017, @09:28PM (1 child)
Can't we just use Linux turbines instead?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29 2017, @12:47AM
> ...Linux turbines
And how many birds will they kill?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29 2017, @09:00AM
My housecats make luncheon out of pigeon.
( Never liked pigeons much... to me they are more like a flying shit tank. )
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29 2017, @03:08PM (1 child)
No, no it's much worse than nothing. It could be entirely made-up, yet fools believe it to be true with zero evidence that it is simply because it exists. I can make all kinds of unsourced charts that say all kinds of untrue things.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Monday October 30 2017, @03:27PM
Trust exists on a continuum, and truth is fundamentally unprovable. Articles published in scientific journals are sometimes frauds, but I still grant them some level of probabilistic trust. I grant significantly less trust to unsourced charts on the internet, but in lieu of other sources or convincing rebuttals that trust is greater than zero. The person compiling that data probably did their best. Maybe they didn't. Knowledge is tricky.