Tidal Power

[begreen]

A local PUD is investigating 7 local sites for tidal power. Being this far north, we get some good strong tidal ranges. The potential is 100MW and I can think of a couple other sites where this potential exists locally.

http://www.snopud.com/?p=3366

 

[Eric Johnson]

There was always talk of putting one in the Bay of Fundy up in Maine, but nothing tangible ever came of it.

 

[begreen]

Because of all the convolutions and islands in the Puget Sound archiplelago we have many spots of awesome tidal force. I once watched a large Bayliner just about burn up his engines trying to buck the awesome tidal change that occurs at Deception Pass. It would be great to harness this force in a non-intrusive manner.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

There is a lot of potential in the tides... and wind. I wonder how much maintenance the turbines need? Is it something that could run for years after being installed before needing to be overhauled?

 

[Burn-1]

I've been watching this company for the past couple years.

It's a Scottish company which makes wave energy generators that
float in the open ocean and produce power just from the up and down
motion of waves.

Pelamis Wave energy generator

It's currently deployed in Portugal. Another major investment in renewable energy
by the Portuguese.

Wave energy in Portugal