Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: Tidal power

Showing posts with label Tidal power. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Tidal energy continues to entice

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Tidal_energy_continues_to_entice_999.html Los Angeles (UPI) Nov 23, 2010 Tapping the Earth's ocean tides for affordable, renewable energy could ultimately meet 10 percent of America's electricity needs, advocates say. While widespread use may be years off, supporters say tides and other hydrokinetic systems, from ocean waves to free-flowing rivers, could eventually provide more electricity than hydropower dams now supply, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
Last month a company called Ocean Power Technologies connected a small test buoy in the swells off Oahu to the power grid that serves the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, a first for a wave energy device in U.S. waters.
"We have demonstrated that our technology works, that it can survive in harsh ocean conditions and can deliver high-quality power to the grid," Robert Lurie, a vice president of New Jersey-based Ocean Power, said.
Next year the company intends to anchor a larger power-generating buoy in the waves off Reedsport, Ore.
Their ultimate goal, Lurie said, is to build "multi-buoy wave farms" generating enough power to light 50,000 homes.
Tidal power projects or studies are being considered in Hawaii, Washington, Alaska, Florida, California, Oregon and Maine, in New York City's East River, along the Mississippi River and elsewhere.
"These are coastal resources, and most people live along the coasts," Hoyt Battey, a water power expert at the U.S. Energy Department, says. "When you're talking about providing half the power of Alaska or Hawaii, or half the power of New York, that's significant."

Friday, October 22, 2010

Tidal Power: The Next Wave? By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Over the next few years, we can expect to see huge advances in our ability to harness power from the ocean’s waves and tides, a new report from IHS Emerging Energy Research, a Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm, predicts.

Getty Images A tidal energy turbine developed by Atlantis Resources.

Until recently, that sector has had limited popularity and mixed success, even as the number of installations generating power from other renewable resources like the wind, sun and biomass has grown rapidly.
“The global ocean energy sector is at a turning point,” the company’s report says. More than 45 wave and tidal prototypes are expected to be ocean-tested in 2010 and 2011. Only nine were tested in 2009.
More important, perhaps, while previous test projects tended to be operated by small, boutique firms, the giants of hydropower, which have decades of experience drawing power from rivers, are now getting into the ocean business. More at:

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/tidal-power-the-next-wave/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Monday, October 18, 2010

Britain sinks tidal scheme, names eight future nuclear sites

by Staff Writers London (AFP) Oct 18, 2010 The British government confirmed on Monday it will drop plans for a multi-billion-pound tidal energy project, as it identified eight sites suitable for building new nuclear power stations. An official study said the proposed 10-mile (16-kilometre) barrage stretching across the Severn river, which was to generate energy using tidal power, could cost more than 34 billion pounds (54 billion dollars, 38.9 billion euros).
It described the project as "high risk in comparison to other ways of generating low-carbon electricity", although it said the proposal could be reconsidered in the future.
"Other low carbon options represent a better deal for taxpayers and consumers," said the energy minister, Chris Huhne.