[Nick Danger]

This will slow down the Moon, causing it to crash into Earth with devastating consequences for women and minorities.

[Willie Green]

The tidal mill produces 300-kilowatts of electricity - enough to power 30 Norwegian houses or 60-80 British homes

What's the difference between British homes and those in Norwegia?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Neat......... but does this underground windmill chew up fish? If so, the PETA/Earth First!/Greenpeace people will be all over them.

[SGCOS]

... but we are going to need all of the renewables and nuclear power we can get our hands on if we are going to meet our Kyoto commitments,"

I didn't realize the key-o-toe protocol called for nuclear power.

[KellyAdmirer]

The best thing about these is that the limousine liberals with fancy estates on the coast won't be able to stop them by complaining they spoil their precious views.

[Steely Tom]

As Arthur C. Clarke said in 2001, "Nature always keeps her books straight."

This tidal generator takes energy from the moon's orbital angular momentum; the energy thus generated will cause the moon to slowly lose "altitude" and spiral down to an inevitable collision with the Earth.

Of course, the moon is already spiraling downward because Earth's tides are not "lossless." Tidal generators will not cause a catastrope that wouldn't otherwise have occurred; they'll just hasten the day of its arrival.

It would be fun for someone who had the time and knowledge to calculate how much sooner the earth-moon encounter will take place as a result of tidal generators (isn't there one in the Bay of Fundy as well), and then run breathlessly to the press with the story: Tidal Generation Shaves 18,000,000 years off the Future of Mankind!

Or some such.

(steely)

[biblewonk]

What we really need is lots more windmills.

[Dan Evans]

Denmark went balls-to-the-wall with windmill power but now these bird blenders are being dismantled because they only make money if they are heavily subsidised. The only reason people are building these alternative energy projects is they hope to clean up on the Kyoto CO2 credits.


http://216.239.33.104/search?q=cache:T4Y--vaUuOkJ:www.wwindea.org/pdf/articles/NewEnergy_Denmark_2-2003.pdf+windmill+dismantled+power+sweden+OR+denmark+OR+norway&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[honeygrl]

I'm sure the enviromentalists will decide that these stations would take homes away from some protected species in the ocean.

[MineralMan]

Nonsense! Tidal generation plants have been in operation since the 1960's.

I quote:

"Tidal energy conversion systems extract energy from the changes in the level of ocean water during tidal cycles. A tidal energy conversion plant typically consists of a tidal basin created by a dam, a turbine and generator and a sluice gate to allow the tidal flow to enter or leave the tidal basin. Tidal energy using conventional hydro-electric technology has been demonstrated at La Rance Estuary in northwest France since 1962. The plant consists of twenty-four 10 MW turbine/generators operating on the maximum tidal amplitude of 14 metres."

Cite:

http://www.energy.qld.gov.au/electricity/infosite/elecgen3/rotation3_1/waterturbines/waterturb.htm

This is an example of poor reporting by someone who just read a press release and didn't even do a Google search. Try it, by searching for "tidal electric generators." I hate this stuff!

[PsyOp]

But think of the fish! All those whirling turbines just waiting to turn them into sushi!

The first time some endangered marine mamel gets a boo-boo from one of these things it will be all over.

[Whispering Smith]

I do not believe this is the first tidal power plant. I read about and saw pictures of similar plants when I was in high school back in the '50's.

[boris]

"The tidal mill produces 300-kilowatts of electricity - enough to power 30 Norwegian houses or 60-80 British homes. Its designers hope to begin mass producing the devices within two years."

A 1000 megawatt prime power plant in the U.S. produces 1000x1000000x24*365 = 8,760,000,000,000 watt-hours per year or 8.76 terawatt hours. That is 8.76E12/300000 = 2920000 times as much energy. What does the 300-kilowatt plant cost? Compared to the cost of a standard generating plant?

" Tidal mills have the potential to provide vast amounts of energy. The European Commission estimates the currents around the UK, for example, could produce 48-terrawatt hours of electricity per year."

Notice the "could produce". At what cost? At what efficiency? Not stated, and for the obvious reasons.

--Boris

[cookcounty]

"The generator consists of ten metre diameter blades which rotate as water passes over them. These in turn drive a generator to produce electricity. The whole mechanism is held aloft by a 20 metre steel column anchored to the seabed. "

After they get the bugs out, they should be able to build an unbroken wall of these, 2,000 miles long, to supply half of Britain with electricity ---- for less than $5 million per family.