The U.S. has over 4,000 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity, one of the best offshore wind resources in the world, a new report from UC Berkeley, Energy Innovation, and Grid Lab finds. If the correct policy actions are taken in the near term, those resources could account for as much as one quarter of U.S. […]
Offshore Wind Resources Could Meet 25% Of US Demand::Offshore Wind Resources Could Meet 25% Of US Demand
This always makes me wonder… the tide has to be one of the biggest sources of free kinetic energy, cycled daily. I can picture a hundred different ways to tap it for free energy. Why aren’t we doing it?
Salt water is a bitch. It will corrode though everything, especially moving parts. It’s not that we couldn’t do it, but the maintenance cost makes it unattractive.
It isn’t “free,” in the sense that the energy is part of regular climate cycles. Wind farms, for example, will disrupt downstream climate patterns if deployed at large scale and in concentrated areas.
It isn’t “free,” in the sense that the energy is part of regular climate cycles. Wind farms, for example, will disrupt downstream climate patterns if deployed at large scale and in concentrated areas.
You basically need a few conditions to be met to make this useable: tide needs to be high enough, there needs to be suitable geological formation that enables building of such power plants, it has to be publicly acceptable to build there, and you need to connect it to the grid. The last two can especially cancel eachother out.
However, this assumes you use potential energy. What you are envisioning might be more like current power (so kinetic energy) where I’m not sure what the limitations are. Perhaps it’s not too practical to build huge plants underwater in locations with relatively constant current and connect them to the grid
This always makes me wonder… the tide has to be one of the biggest sources of free kinetic energy, cycled daily. I can picture a hundred different ways to tap it for free energy. Why aren’t we doing it?
Salt water is a bitch. It will corrode though everything, especially moving parts. It’s not that we couldn’t do it, but the maintenance cost makes it unattractive.
Make it all out of whatever offshore windmills are made of (ok I say this half jokingly because I honestly have no knowledge in this area)
It isn’t “free,” in the sense that the energy is part of regular climate cycles. Wind farms, for example, will disrupt downstream climate patterns if deployed at large scale and in concentrated areas.
It isn’t “free,” in the sense that the energy is part of regular climate cycles. Wind farms, for example, will disrupt downstream climate patterns if deployed at large scale and in concentrated areas.
You basically need a few conditions to be met to make this useable: tide needs to be high enough, there needs to be suitable geological formation that enables building of such power plants, it has to be publicly acceptable to build there, and you need to connect it to the grid. The last two can especially cancel eachother out.
However, this assumes you use potential energy. What you are envisioning might be more like current power (so kinetic energy) where I’m not sure what the limitations are. Perhaps it’s not too practical to build huge plants underwater in locations with relatively constant current and connect them to the grid
It is done: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power