Invest in tidal

There are lots of ideas concerning wind, solar and so forth. All of which are valid. As far as I can tell tidal power has been overlooked as a solution in favour of wind power.

One of the common complaints regarding this is that renewable power is variable, what happens if the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. One of the common responses is "this is why we need nuclear".

According to figures from Scottish Energy Hub
"It is estimated that Scotland’s marine area contains 25% of Europe’s tidal energy resource (Scottish Government, 2015) and it has been estimated to have around 32 TWh per year of potentially exploitable tidal stream resource (The Crown Estate, 2012). In 2018 Scotland’s combined gross electricity consumption was 24 TWh"

As tidal energy is predicable you can tell when power will be produced. Reduced energy production at high and low tides can be managed by some form of pumped hydro, green hydrogen, compressed or liquid air and so forth.

This approach should provide some consistency for power production which answers some of the baseload issues outlined.

There are other tidal schemes which could be investigated - using sea lochs as tidal lagoons an so forth.

One advantage of tidal turbines is that they are underwater which reduces the visible impact which is useful in areas of outstanding natural beauty.







Why the contribution is important

Variability of supply is a critical issue with renewables - on still winter's days in Scotland (rare I know) there can be a deficit of supply. The regularity of tides could answer this question.

The current investment in tidal power in Scotland is miniscule. If Scotland wants to be carbon neutral by 2035 waiting around is not an option - tidal schemes are going to take the best part of a decade to plan and build so need to be started now.

Performing site evaluation and environmental impacts is the first step and is a small part of overall costs. Even if tidal energy turns out to be a dead end the risk of this versus the potential resources means that the money lost on these evaluations is miniscule compared to the opportunity cost.

by Tony on September 10, 2022 at 10:37AM

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Average rating: 5.0
Based on: 5 votes

Comments

  • Posted by MarionGRobertson September 10, 2022 at 15:10

    The world’s largest, most powerful & most advanced floating tidal turbine is Orbital Marine Power’s O2 currently generating electricity to the National Grid off Eday, Orkney. The massive advantage this Scottish company’s technology offers over submerged tidal turbines is its retractable blades which can be brought to the surface for safe maintenance within minutes. Maintainance of submerged turbines is dangerous for maintenance divers in fast-flowing currents, costly and significantly slower.

  • Posted by Tony September 10, 2022 at 16:50

    I think the above comment from MarionGRobertson demonstrates that tidal options are available today that work. (Albeit the O2 is a prototype.)

    Why not invest in Scottish technology to provide renewable power to Scotland?

  • Posted by DonaldMcP September 12, 2022 at 14:01

    I'd like to support tidal power. Scotland could be a leader in this area and create many clean, green jobs.

  • Posted by lm0001 September 13, 2022 at 10:06

    I have read previously that generation technologies little tidal up in Orkney and the islands could provide massive amounts of energy, but are hampered as we don't currently have a strong high level grid connection to the islands. We need to make sure that connection is in place or else any new developments will just go to waste at the electricity they produce can't make it to the mainland grid.
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