As the threat of climate change grows each year, the need to harness renewable energy sources becomes more and more important. There has been much focus on harnessing wind and solar energy, but a lack of focus on the possibilities created by the ocean. Recent research explores the many ways to harness energy from the ocean, and its potential to be a reliable source of electrical energy that has the capacity to power thousands of households (Bahaj 2011). The unique dependability of tidal power is due to the Earth’s stable tide schedules; this is unlike wind and solar power generation, which is powered by unpredictable sources (Mackie et al. 2021). Tidal power farms have the potential to harness over 500 MW of energy, yet the scientific world has only just begun to research these large-scale projects (Yang et al. 2021). This lack of research is likely due to the need for the development of new technologies and proper funding to understand how these projects could be implemented on a more global scale. As of right now, many tidal power stations are battling ocean bed erosion caused by the strong flow of the turbine (Kim et al. 2021). With more research and development of technologies, the ecological and environmental damages can be limited, and in the end so much better than burning fossil fuels. Currently, there are only a handful of large-scale farms, namely La Rance Tidal Power Station in France and Shihwa Tidal Power Plant in South Korea. In the South Korean plant, it has the capacity to power around 500,000 households along with having many positive environmental effects on the artificial lake in which it is based, such as reducing the levels of carbon dioxide in the water and revitalizing marine life in the surrounding area (Park and Lee 2021). Since the majority of our earth is covered in water, tidal energy once developed could be a reliable source of energy without using fossil fuels.
Before reading your post, I was not even aware that tidal power was a form of energy, so I learned a lot from this! It is amazing that the South Korean plant has the capability to power around 500,000 homes.
I think this is super interesting, and like Shane said, I had not even really considered utilizing waves/tidal power as a viable source of energy! Thanks so much for sharing!!
This is my first time hearing about and learning about tidal power. What’s the difference between tidal and hydro power? Good stuff.