Tidal Generated Power

Although this is not a new approach it would work as well as many I've seen. One drawback is not having an inherent flywheel effect. A bi-directional Well's Turbine that uses chimney and air pressure of tidal waves is pretty effective and has some reasonable efficiency numbers.

It is a great idea, and already being put to use.

Giant Tidal Power Turbines Coming to a Canada Near You

Watched a documentary the other day on this subject and there are four others attempting this technology. Some of these folks have been in the field for 20 plus years trying this out. The biggest problem they are having is the "propellers blades" breaking free of the hub. The power output of these small size generators is quite high considering their size of blades.

I've seen that. It is really impressive. But hugh and I can't imagine how expensive it was to build. I know the efficiency is way up there but I'm thinking on a smaller scale. Something you might power your dock with. It would look something like this. Except that it would have fewer blades and it would be long, I'm thinking 12 to 15 feet. I got the idea from a back yard windmill project. You use wood slats and they are pretty easy to assemble. I don't think you could use wood in the ocean though. But if you set something like this horizontally then all that would be in the water are the blades and shaft. You could run a chain or belt up to a raft or maybe your dock where your generator would be mounted. But you can make them a long as you have room for and you might even be able to gang them together. Who cares if they are efficient if they are cheap to build and maintain. You just add more to get the power you need. Thanks for the interest.

There is something that has been on the market for awhile, the jack rabbit submersible hydro generator or Aquair UW Submersible Hydro Generator and may be adaptable to your cage idea. It was originally designed to catch tidal flows off of oil platforms in Alaska.

Hey good idea, I was thinking on the large commercial scale type. The problem I was running into was drag on the non producing part, if the unit was submersed...doesn't have to be.

Mount your system on pontoons, anchored one way. This will keep the system in the proper orientation to the tide. Have only a small portion of the wheel submerged, this will reduce the drag. Cover the system as it would be in a furnace application. Change the drive motor to a generator, connect to shore. System can be brought in during sever weather. How's that.

In the 1990s there was a show on the Discovery channel called Beyond 2000. There they showed a new invention that took advantage of large waves crashing against the shore. Not sure where the show was shot at but it was rocky cliffs that rose high above the sea, and a location that had costant large waves. There they constructed a very large diameter column, "20 feet or larger", that reached from the top of the cliff down the cliff face into the water below where it sat on it's base. The column had a large opening at the base to allow the waves to enter and exit. This pushed a huge volume of air up and down inside the column at tremendous force. At the top of the column they installed a large multi blade rotor that filled the diameter of the column at the top. It's blades were triangle shaped so it would spin under power the same direction no mater which way the air flow was going. The rotor turned a generator. It's hard to explain the size of these things but they were saying it was going to be used to run entire towns, maybe multiple units. Haven't seen anything about it since the show.

A few designs here for you to look at from this web site

Regards JD.