Turbines Turn with the Tides

If Swanturbines can make this work reliably, it will be good progress, 'clean' and simple. The energy 'wasted' every day by the ocean's tidal movement is enormous, but since it is spread all over the globe, it is difficult to 'harvest' economically. So we need the simplest that technology can offer.

Maybe we are going in the wrong direction. Imagine a floating platform with a generating station aboard. A cable on a spooling device linked to the generator with the cable end anchored to the ocean floor. Since the tides cause primarily a rising and falling of water level, when the tide rises it generates power. Granted it's not much movement but if you displace enough water with the vessel the torque would be tremendous. Also, it would only work from low to high tide but I thought it was a different way to look at the problem and perhaps with fewer complications??

As I understand it there is a rather sizeable sea current off the eastern coast of the USA and western coast of Great Britain. Could something like this be placed out on a sea shelf? Perhaps in a river channel as it flows into the sea? The wind may or may not blow, but water is nearly always in motion.

Very Cool Project, In 1990 at the International Arts Festival known as Glastonbury Pop Fest, (I was put in charge by Michaie Eavis, he trusted me to collect all the ring-pulls that stuck in his cattle's hooves, we used the secretarial staff to ensure ring-pulls stayed on the can..blah another tale!) There was an exhibitor in the Green Field where all things 'Eco' were demonstrated; This exhibit was a 'SeeSaw' contraption that had what looked like short Aircraft Wings...It merrily oscilated in the slightest breeze, but the 'Inventor'? explaned it was intended for under the sea, so as to overcome the problem of stray 'fishing nets' flotsom etc. entangling a turbine blade. I have forgotten how the 'power' was intended to be harvested. There would be many options.

Sorry MichaEL!....If you see an old 'market' pair of weighing scales, i.e. 'parallelogram' type, with linkages to alter the 'tilt' of the wings, then the reader might get a better picture of this 'SeeSaw' generator. 'SEAsaw'

The trouble with any floating generation rig, is 'Neptune's Fury' The old seagod has a much calmer temper below the waves. Ask a submariner.

I noted with interest a recent GlobalSpec feature on 'snap-action' permanent magnet wave-power generation, think of a giant floating bicycle chain, tethered to an anchored buoy. [I guess 'Air-Springs' might come in handy here?] Once again Old Neptune might scupper the project. Some very sturdy lighthouses have vanished overnight without trace when waves are the size of appartment buildings, except more massive, [more weight!]

Good point. I wasn't thinking about the storm factor.

Two years after this blog was originally posted, the first 6 of 300 tidal turbines have arrived in New York City. The 300 turbines will provide 10 MW, enough to power nearly 8,000 New York homes and replace 68,000 barrels of oil or 430 million cu ft of natural gas per year. Here's the full story from Industrial Equipment News.