Unthreaded
This piece and discussion at Euan Mearns' site is quite useful in understanding the potential contribution of Swansea Bay and other tidal sites - and the potential problems it introduces too. I got motivated to add a number of links to material on the project, La Rance, and a thesis evaluating the Severn in some of the comments. It doesn't look good.
It doesn't add up...
Salopian: as the difference between the lowest low tide and the highest low tide could be greater than the difference between some high/low tidal ranges would mean that the output from this hare-brained idea could be almost as variable as wind-turbines; the only difference is that it would be a predictable variation. With all that in mind, what you can be sure of is that the generators are unlikely to be working at peak efficiency for most of their existence; indeed, they may be at peak efficiency for as little as 10% of their life, a case that more conventional systems do not suffer.
Radical Rodent
james on Oct 15, 2015 at 4:03 PM
re double-decker bus volume
"I have a lot more trouble visualising that than a simple expression of the dimensions."
Yes, all we need is the volume of a standard double-decker bus. Any common unit will suffice: like cubic metres, litres, cubic feet or, my favourite, acre-inches.
Robert Christopher
More illegal activities form the anti-fracking brigade here
Phillip Bratby
M Courtney 3:20pm: "...tides are less variable than the wind."
Only to the extent that unlike wind, they do not actually cease when conditions are suitable. They rarely occur on a 12-cycle, certainly not so in Swansea Bay. In fact it has at least one day each month without a full two-tide cycle.
Apart from the most obvious variables affecting tidal height (the position of the Moon and the Sun), there are up to 40 other meteorological and geographic variables that significantly affect tides at any particular location.
Salopian
Don
“large enough to hold 560 double-decker buses“
I have a lot more trouble visualising that than a simple expression of the dimensions. Is it a measure of the general public’s lack of numeracy that these things have to be compared with buses/whales/ swimming pools/football pitches/Wales, or is it just journalists..?
jamesp
I'm in favour of the Swansea Tidal Lagoon, if they can get the price down.
It does provide a reliable form of energy - tides are less variable than the wind.
It's not affecting an area being used for much else.
It doesn't restrict whole waterways like the Severn Tidal Barrage would.
If they can overcome the price issue then I can see this becoming a viable technology.
Doubling up as a fish farm could help.
M Courtney
Lord Beaverbrook: I am not sure about anyone else on this site, but I would consider the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon considerably more controversial than an open-cast mine.
Has the appropriate “environmental impact assessment” been done? And, have they properly surveyed the site to determine that there are no species under threat?
My own suspicions are that the answer to both of those questions will be, “No,” though there might be some paperwork completed that says that they have.
How much longer will it be before this point is raised in a court of law: on being asked if there is any proof of the required checks being made, the defendant indicates a pile of paperwork, to which the lawyer replies with the most obvious observation: “All that proves is that you have filled those papers in with the appropriate checks and comments.” When that happens, the area around a lot of fans is going to be very messy.
Radical Rodent
There is more drivel from the Government in response to the Climate Change Committee's 2015 progress report downloadable here
Phillip Bratby
jamesp
30 feet long by 10 feet wide
Observer of the Highway code...
Hold very tight please... ting ting!