First Commercial Sub-Sea Tidal Power Station

daksis writes "New Scientist is reporting that the first commercial sub-sea tidal power station has gone online in Hammerfest Norway. 'The power station, which resembles an underwater windmill, began generating electricity for the town of Hammerfest. Although still largely a prototype, the generator is the first in the world to harness the power of the sea and be connected to an electricity grid.' If they can make the technology commercially viable, then we'll have yet another weapon in the arsenal for producing cleaner energy."

Comments

Re:tidal power isn't new

[isorox]

But thats not an underwater one - well obviously some of it is underwater, but its still has a visual impact

Re:tidal power isn't new

[misterpies]

I fully accept that -- but the original post was claiming that this was the first time the "power of the sea" had been harnessed to a national grid in any way, not just via an undersea solution.

But to be really nitpicking, I should point out that it's not the power of the sea being harnessed at all -- it's the power of the moon. Or strictly, the earth-moon gravitational field.

If only it was that easy

[chia_monkey]

It would be nice to use all these nice, clean, efficient methods of generating electricity but I can't help having a little skepticism. It's amazing what a little political involvement, some lobbying, and big bucks can do. It's really sad that we can't truly preserve the planet because of the deep pockets of some major oil companies.

"Oops, our tanker just leaked some crude and it somehow sank down and ruined your generators. sorry"