A consortium of Dutch hydraulic experts and the global consulting firm ARCADIS has been funded by the Dutch and Chinese governments to assess the viability of building a tidal power facility along the east coast of China using a technology known as Dynamic Tidal Power.
Dynamic Tidal Power is an untested but highly promising approach to extracting energy from the tides. DTP utilizes a dam in the form of an 18 or more-mile long barrier, which is built perpendicular to the coast, running straight out into the sea, rather like a causeway to nowhere.
Along many coasts of the world, the main tidal movement runs parallel to the coastline: the entire mass of the ocean water accelerates in one direction, and later in the day goes back the other way. A DTP dam is long enough to exert an influence on the horizontal tidal movement, which generates a water level differential or head between both sides of the dam. The head can be converted into power, using a long series of conventional low-head turbines installed in the dam.
These oscillating tidal waves contain powerful hydraulic currents and are common in China, Korea, and the UK. Conventional tidal power requires specialized locations that have very high natural tidal heads and requires closing off the tidal basins. DTP has neither requirement.
Estimates are that one large DTP dam along the Chinese coast could produce 5,000 MW of electric power and that the DTP power potential in China could be over 100,000 MW. This is a technology worth watching.
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Dynamic Tidal Power Technology Advances
Photo, posted July 30, 2007, courtesy of Kevin McManus via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.