Tidal Energy

Tidal Energy or Tidal Power should have a bright future although there are many voices who believe that governments have not invested enough in this energy source. Tidal energy is the only renewable energy that comes from the motions of the Earth and the Moon and what is certain that this energy source is potentially enormous.

How does it work?
Like wind or other renewable energy systems, engineers are constantly looking for movement to create systems that can create electrical energy production sources. Tides offer this possibility in abundance as the experts know exactly when and how they work and the movements of marine currents.

There are three main types:
1. Systems that exploit more of this movement are known as kinetic systems and make use of Tidal Streams which create movement.

2. Barrages extract energy from the difference when the sea is high or low. The variation between the tides is 12 hours and 30 minutes and can vary from 2 to 15 meters. What they do is cover a stretch of water with a dam, usually from one ground point to another. The biggest problem of these systems is the costs and also the environmental impact. For example in the United Kingdom there have been many studies to build a huge tidal center in the Seven River near Bristol. The costs would be high and there were many environmental groups against that the project as many believed that the construction work could have produced so much CO2 that it would take ten years of the operation of the plant to make up for the Co2 emissions spent when building.

3. Tidal lagoons are very similar but can be built with far less cost and environmental impact. They are similar to Barrages except they do not need to be connected from one land point to another.

There are many ongoing projects and research and development and some countries like Portugal and are already drawing energy from the sea. What is certain is that this energy source could provide much of the energy mix needed to meet the challenges of finding alternative energy sources

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