Tidal power

[Tighsonas4]

is the pentland firth going to make us the mecca of the north
maybe raise the share index tony

[Rheghead]

I don't know, time will only tell. But there a few things that concern me, the pentland turbines are only 36% efficient and they require conventional back up which will make their inclusion in to the grid system very expensive, even more so than wind as they will 50% more costly than onshore wind in terms of ROCs. And what about safety to cetacean life forms? We all bang on about them and their potential for their contribution to 'eco tourism' but what happens when a family finds a whale on a beach with deep bleeding scars? And how about the low frequency noise? Will the turbines confuse whales and make Caithness into the mother of all whale beachings?

And what about their energy balance, do they mitigate more CO2 emissions than they produce? As we go ever more renewable in the energy sector, that will be harder to achieve.

I'm not at all against tidal power, it is just that they are not the golden bullet to solve our energy problems.

I am being rather tongue-in-cheek in this post, anybody with a reasonable amount of intelligence can find that the answers to many of these concerns will translate nicely to those of windfarms.

[rich]

So does tidal power have a future or is it just pie in the sky? (Or on the ocean bed)
Here's a summing up of where we are and where we may be headed. For myself I think it is a gimmick. But what do you think?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/bu...ef=environment

[MadPict]

I don't know, time will only tell. But there a few things that concern me,

Glad you're being tongue in cheek - was about to rattle off a reply....

[Rheghead]

Glad you're being tongue in cheek - was about to rattle off a reply....

Be my guest and make a reply to those issues and you'd be hard pressed not to be able to apply them to wind farms as well.