wind farms

the problem with harnessing energy from most ocean currents is due to the tidal shifts. A traditional turbine generator expects a somewhat constant flow, and that flow needs to be in 1 direction (IE: Hoover Dam). Ocean currents move fast, then slow down, then change direction, and repeat... not ideal for a turbine generator

 

A big hurdle to tidal power is the amount of money that must be spent maintaining the machines. Salt water is corrosive and breaks down the parts very quickly. The expensive parts need to be replaced relatively often.

Also, there are environmental concerns with tidal energy because the blades/turbines could kill fish/whales/etc. If the blades/turbines kill an animal, it creates blood and chum, essentially, bringing more animals towards the blades. Those animals die and create more blood/chum, and pretty soon you have a sea creature massacre happening at those underwater turbines.

 

didn't think of a sea creature massacre - good point.

 

this shouldn't be an issue. winds have the same variability... just allow the turbine to harness from all directions.

 

read the entire thread...

 

I think he might be referring to our upside down water mills we are currently discussing. I was actually thinking the same thing, whats a farm, or say a bank of these going to do to a current? Slow it, divert it, alter it just enough that it might cause some unknown weather issue. Granted if we did this in the Atlantic, America wouldn't notice any issues, but Europe would.

Also the under water massacre made me laugh for a good 5 minutes, it didn't even occur to me that other things might want to use the water, lol.

 

the underwater massacre is a really good point.

as far as ocean currents go - this is way to small scale for it to disturb large scale ocean currents.

that would be like saying putting up a wind farm will change our weather patterns. Butterfly effect... sure.. everything has an influence, but we are talking minor. Every time we turn fields into parking lots, we influence climate, but that wont stop development.

i thought rightcoastsurfer3 was talking about blocking swells from reaching the beaches.

 

ya, we were dicussing this earlier on in the thread.

now that i think about it a little more, i'm thinking the mills will have to be moored to the bottom, so they dont float away. before, when we were discussing this, I was proposing maybe they are more or less floating on the surface, which wouldnt be a problem for swell blockage.

So, if they are moored, then I guess there will be some reflection of swells propagating towards the beach. However, we are only talking about a small window of beach that would be effected - so hopefully that window is not covering a good break... I dont think it will be too substantial of an influence.

 

I think a good way would be to work them into the walls of an inlet. Inlets have a strong flow that is easily predictable in both direction and speed. I'm thinking in the walls of inlets, basically a concrete intake with the fans on the inside, away from boats and other water traffic. Think like brake ducts on cars, or better yet gills on a fish. They would need to have their shaft switched in direction 2x a day, but that would be easily accommodated with the 20 or so minute ebb tide.

 

PETA would have a field day with that. I would be stabbing them with beach umbrellas and smacking them with my fins on the beach.

 

This under water massacreneverappen. ONe the tides don't move fast enough to generate enough energy to make a turbine move fast enough to hurt a fish. Secondly have any of u tried to spin a turbine/propeller under water. it is pretty difficult to do and there is no way dat tidal fluctuations even have enough force to spin these turbines/propellers. So pretty much trying to gather energy from tidal movements is out of the question because the cost to set up these underwater energy generators would cost too much for such a small amount of energy pay off. Underwater generators using the oceans tides is never goin to happen.

 

i dont agree at all. the cost is surely an issue, but the ocean currents are likely storing the greatest amount of energy available.

think about a turbine, half underwater, half above water... Should be quite easy to move - and a similar process to storing energy from a damn. build some sort of eco friendly mesh barrier to prevent the underwater massacre (but allow the water movement).
<--- just brainstorming - there certainly needs to be some creativity in the engineering, but there is always a way --->

dont think tides, think ocean movement - currents.

 

FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

 

Who says the turbine has to massive like a wind mill? It could be a lot of small ones.

 

nice dig up.

 

First Tidal Power generator open:

Tech Review

 

Not sure where my information came from, but I was told once that the Indian River Inlet has such a strong water flow from tide changes that turbines placed in the Inlet could power a small town such as lewes. This strong water flow is also the reason the bridge has eroded so much and needs to be replaced (but by the looks of it, may not happen until it's too late.)