EnergyBC: Tidal Power - 2 views
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his is somewhat balanced out by long plant lives of 100 years for the actual barrage structure, and 40 for the equipment, as well as low operating costs.
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An estimate is given by researcher Eleanor Denny. Denny estimates that in order for a facility to be profitable, its capital cost should be less than €530,000 (~$700,000 USD) per MegaWatt which with the current technology is not a realistic goal, meaning that so far the industry produces negative net benefits.50
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Canada's Race Rocks site, where a single turbine generator converts 65 kW of energy, cost $4,000,000.54 This figure was met with $3,000,000 investment from project partner EnCana's Environmental innovation Fund, and a grant of just under $1 million awarded to Pearson College and their partners in the project.
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This plant produces about 100 times the power generated at Race Rocks. An investment of around €8.5 million ($11 million USD) made SeaGen a reality.
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The environmental impacts of tidal barrage include hampered fish migration, forced water level changes on the basin behind the barrage, reduced salinity in the basin due to low quantities of ocean water, and reduced ability of currents to transport and suspend sediments
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, they are, by nature, reliant on the natural environment and therefore are vulnerable to the effects of climate change
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Brief History of Tidal Power The energy stored in tides been known to people for many centuries. The earliest records of tidal mills are dated back to the 8th Century CE.7 The tidal mills were mainly used for grain grinding and were of similar design to the conventional water mills with the exception of the addition of a dam and reservoir. The industrial revolution increased demand for power but tidal energy never got off the ground, undercut by cheap fossil fuels and other developments which offered easier access to power generation. Existing tidal mills became as obsolescent as pre-industrial water-mills. The first large scale modern tidal electric plant started to operate in La Rance Estuary, St. Malo, France in the 1960s and has been operating ever since. in recent years the search for renewable, non-polluting energy sources and the increase in fossil fuel prices has encouraged renewed interest in tidal power.