Government stupidity:

The Cardiff bay tidal barrage has been dropped from government funding.

The UK has numerous places where twice daily tidal surges occur. Why oh why aren’t we utilising them? They are far more reliable than wind or solar.

Tony S said:

The UK has numerous places where twice daily tidal surges occur. Why oh why aren’t we utilising them? They are far more reliable than wind or solar.

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Doesn't the Severn estuary have one of the highest tidal ranges in the world? (hence the Severn bore). You would have thought some of that power could be captured?

Doc H.

Yes I believe the Severn has the highest tide change in the world   ...  I'd second what was said above , surely some of that power could be utilised .  

I always think those great dams they have in the USA  must be worth their weight in gold  ...where they;'re not burning any fuel , turbines are turned by falling water   .  

Tidal power is fairly OK but does not manage to produce a lot of power, there are also very few places where it can be effectively utilised.

However tidal systems also have a major detrimental impact on marine life (barrages are worse than lagoons), especially in the best places for tidal power as they tend to be very diverse ecosystems because of the constant effect of the tide.

I think this about sums us up, we don’t seem to use what is around us right under our nose??

"Time and tides wait for no man"....the sun and wind just does what it wants!

Ardet R said:

However tidal systems also have a major detrimental impact on marine life (barrages are worse than lagoons), especially in the best places for tidal power as they tend to be very diverse ecosystems because of the constant effect of the tide.

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Using fossil fuels also has a dertrimental effect on marine life - acidification of the oceans. This has always been a conundrum, if you want to protect the eco-system something has to give way somewhere, I don't think the enviromental lobby has ever got its act together on this, they seem to want to protect every last sq mm of earth, but then condemn these sorts of schemes - can't have it both ways, and I'm sure schemes can be designed to minimise impact on marine life.

I agree that tidal power is unreasonably neglected. It's the only natural source which is reliable, predictable and largely constant and causes no pollution.

If anything like the funding that has been given to wind power had been invested in tidal we would have some results by now.

I think the problem is that politicians fear the eco warriors. We need someone with the vision and guts to take a broader view.

There will always be some losers in any power scheme but history shows us that nature adapts and takes advantage of man's alterations to the earth.  Look how many of today's nature reserves and tourist beauty spots, etc are past industrial sites, where incidentally No care at all was taken.  I'm  not saying blindly ignore nature, but do be willing to work with it rather than just always preserve the "as is".

The biggest problem of all   :-  

In 1539  the population of England & Wales was 3 million .

Today I don't even want to think about it .....I do know that they all drive into Birmingham everyday . 

Doc Hudson said:

Doesn't the Severn estuary have one of the highest tidal ranges in the world? (hence the Severn bore). You would have thought some of that power could be captured?

Doc H.

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It does and a barrage has been proposed more than once. The Humber is another prime example of government dithering.

Tony S said:

The Cardiff bay tidal barrage has been dropped from government funding.

The UK has numerous places where twice daily tidal surges occur. Why oh why aren’t we utilising them? They are far more reliable than wind or solar.

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It was actually the Swansea barrage that was dropped, and it would have had quite a positive impact for both tourism, environment and jobs.

The Cardiff one may still go ahead yet.

I could generate 4 times per day, in and outflow.

The biggest issue I saw was that of silting, and that they would need to dredge the lagoon, and there was to be no way to sail a boat into the lagoon, it would have to be craned in!

Yes, sorry about the mix up.

Silting was the problem the Chinese faced with the three gorgers dam. With it being a high head dam, base flushing clears the silt, silt that is needed down stream. With a lagoon, dredging would be the only solution but it could be used on the land.

The bottom line is quite plain and simple, we need a reliable energy source. As you say tidal will generate four times a day and it is reliable. The future Snowdonia pumped hydro scheme will help iron out the highs and lows. 

Just dig up coal and be done with it...

john..

apprentice87 said:

Just dig up coal and be done with it...

john..

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Cant do that today, the modern man doesn’t know what it is to get his hands dirty! 

Sharpend said:

Cant do that today, the modern man doesn’t know what it is to get his hands dirty! 

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It's not just your hands that get dirty with coal lol.  Especially when the fines and site gets wet.

A stockpile fire, no thanks. Despite a bitumen covering, temperature monitoring and nitrogen injection we had a fire, it took months to get under control.

Tony S said:

A stockpile fire, no thanks. Despite a bitumen covering, temperature monitoring and nitrogen injection we had a fire, it took months to get under control.

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Our stockpile was soldering (we even kept ours damp. The mills dried it out when we atomized it) for 9years until we emptied it and moved it to another gantry. Never caught fire. Amazing how it can self combust.