With all the power behind tides and currents, there has to be a way to efficiently harness this power and put it to good use. How would it be done?

http://en.wikipedia....ydroelectricity

 

 

http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/energy/renewable/hydro.php

 

We couldn't build a Hoover dam in the Atlantic ocean or in the English channel. We need a better way to collect the power of the currents and tides.

For open water they use "snakes" to harness wave energy

 

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/838/84/

Snakes take up to much room. We would need miles of them and they would cause problems for ships.

Snakes take up to much room. We would need miles of them and they would cause problems for ships.

Waves and the tides just do not contain much energy. Every wave and tidal generator will take up a lot of room. I also don't like it, but it seems mother nature ignores our opinions on the matter.

 

If you reserve 1 square kilometer (1,000,000 m2) of space for your tidal generator, and the difference between high tide and low tide is 2 meters, your energy output would be:

 

Mass of water: 1,000,000 (m2) * 2 (m) * 1000 (kg/m3) = 2 * 10^9 kg

Average height difference: 1 m

Gravity: 9.81 m/s2

-------------------------------------------------------- x

Energy = m*g*h = 19.6 GJ

 

And you have that much energy twice per day: 39.4 GJ/day.

Expressed in Watts (Watt = J/s), that is 454 kW, which is the same as about 100 households.

 

And that's assuming 100% conversion of the potential energy of the water into electricity.

 

It's a very small amount of energy. Same for waves.

Very true, but there still are a endless number of things we have not even dreamed about let alone tried.

Waves and the tides just do not contain much energy. Every wave and tidal generator will take up a lot of room. I also don't like it, but it seems mother nature ignores our opinions on the matter.

 

If you reserve 1 square kilometer (1,000,000 m2) of space for your tidal generator, and the difference between high tide and low tide is 2 meters, your energy output would be:

 

Mass of water: 1,000,000 (m2) * 2 (m) * 1000 (kg/m3) = 2 * 10^9 kg

Average height difference: 1 m

Gravity: 9.81 m/s2

-------------------------------------------------------- x

Energy = m*g*h = 19.6 GJ

 

And you have that much energy twice per day: 39.4 GJ/day.

Expressed in Watts (Watt = J/s), that is 454 kW, which is the same as about 100 households.

 

And that's assuming 100% conversion of the potential energy of the water into electricity.

 

It's a very small amount of energy. Same for waves.

searchingfortruth

Very true, but there still are a endless number of things we have not even dreamed about let alone tried.

 

I'm sure as our technology gets better it could be better used. I dont think we can use the ocean as a viable energy source at the moment. We havn't dreamt up the technology yet . We should concentrate on other much more viable renewable energy technologies. Energy sources that would actually be able to sustain our power consumption.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/march/saline-rechargeable-battery-032811.html The water itself could be our future power source.

Cui's team calculated that if all the world's rivers were put to use, their batteries could supply about 2 terawatts of electricity annually – that's roughly 13 percent of the world's current energy consumption.

Every river in the world and it's only good for 13%?

 

Doesn't sound very promising. Might work for niche applications, but that's about it.

Very true, but there still are a endless number of things we have not even dreamed about let alone tried.

I'm sure as our technology gets better it could be better used. I dont think we can use the ocean as a viable energy source at the moment. We havn't dreamt up the technology yet . We should concentrate on other much more viable renewable energy technologies. Energy sources that would actually be able to sustain our power consumption.

 

Sure we can improve our technology. And yes, we must always do more research. And yes, the tides and waves are a sustainable form of energy, and we would do well to use it.

 

But we cannot expect more energy from the tides than the theoretical maximum. The calculation I showed is the theoretical max. There is nothing more to be expected. All we can do is:

1. Make sure we convert nearly 100% of that energy into a useful form (electricity).

2. Make that as cheap as possible.

Hey I have completed engineering in B.Tech.

Hey I have completed engineering in B.Tech.

Hey! Congratulations! What's B. Tech.? And how is it relevant in this discussion?

 

(And am I talking to a human, or a spam bot)?