Re-Purposing the Netherlands' Dike System For Power Generation

vikingpower writes "Built in reaction to a major flood that killed 1,800 in the '50s, the Dutch system of dikes, sluices, surge barriers, and dams has been dubbed 'one of the seven wonders of the modern world' by the American Society of Engineers. Now there are proposals to use the system differently, e.g. as tidal power plants, by punching holes in them. Any civil engineer's mouth will probably be watering when thinking of the mega-projects this could give rise to."

Comments

Great idea

[rve]

This is a great idea. Sure, it seems like a waste of all the resources and energy put into building those dikes and keeping that land dry, but the madness can't go on forever. Natural selection will eventually take care of a land based species that prefers to live below sea level.

The Netherlands are the most environmentally unfriendly country in the world. Do you have any idea how much water the country displaces? And how much fossil fuel is burned to fuel the pumps needed to keep the sea from flowing back. Giving this country back to the sea would cancel out decades of sea level rise. It would also save the more than 80 gigaton oil equivalent per year in energy that country uses. Inundating the place and turning the entire country into an alternative energy source seems like a nice way to give something back to mother nature.

Re:Great idea

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

Too little too late sir, I say we nuke Belgium to a depth of fifteen meters and fill that in instead.

Who's with me?!

More seriously though, how would this work, wouldn't they need to pump the water out afterwards, or are they hoping for tidal flow forces to do that for them?

Re:Great idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Laugh, great suggestion. My apartment is in a building that's about 4m below sea level, so that means I'd be able to kayak to work directly from the lounge room. Awesome!

Page 55 of the 2006 IEA "Key World Energy Statistics" shows that the per-capita energy use in the Netherlands is on different measures, somewhere between 0.5 and 0.75 of the USA's.

Re:Great idea

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

The world renowned Dutch sense of humour

The Dutch are renowned for many things, a sense of humour isn't one of them. Unless you were trying to be funny, in which case I stand corrected.

Re:Great idea

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

And ten points for the rare and difficult to achieve double-whoosh on the backspin, the crowd goes wild.

Re:Dear Editor

[Paul Jakma]

The word is dyke in dutch (well, more or less) and in its closest english speaking neighbour.

Try learn about the rest of the world before making yourself sound like an myopic, "World Series" looking idiot.

Re:Dear Editor

[pjt33]

That may well be so, but last time I checked, Slashdot was published in English.

Speaking as an Englishman, I suggest you check again.