Slashdot Mirror
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."
The Annapolis Tidal Power station at the mouth of the Annapolis river in Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy has been running (and providing power to Nova Scotia Power's grid) since the mid '80s. (this PDF of a magazine article provides more info.)
While considered a "pilot" operation, it does generate 20 MW of power, supplying the electrical needs for 4500 customers.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
I guess if the USA ever adopts tidal farms, future generations can look forward to a president (massively funded by the tide industry, of course) attempting to derail any action over Global Slowing...
>>the generator is the first in the world to harness the power of the sea and be connected to an electricity grid
That's plain untrue. Tidal barrages -- which use the tidally-driven flow seawater in and out of a river mouth or basin -- have been used to generate electricity for decades. A barrage across the Rance, in northern France, opened in 1967 and has been generating enough power to supply 200 000 homes ever since.
The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
10 meter blades that they have are spinning quite slowly - I'm sure the fish could easily swim out of the way. I'm sure they also wanted to avoid seaweed and have some sort of filter/fence to prevent stuff from clogging up the blade.
..........FULL STOP.
Tidal power tubines spin rather slowly - About 25RPM. And they're not sharp like high-speed turbine blades.
A 10-meter turbine (5 meter radius - about 16 feet) spinning at a top speef of 20RPM (about 2 radians per second) would have a tip speed of about 11 meters per second (~33 feet per second).
That's pretty slow. 30MPH actually. But that's a conservative estimate.
Also, unlike hydroelectric dams, there's no strong current sucking everything into the blades - just tidal currents.
=Smidge=
The tidal mill produces 300-kilowatts of electricity - enough to power 30 Norwegian houses or 60-80 British homes
Or half of a slashdotters basement