Tidal Energy

Terms related to Tide

• When the water is above the mean sea level-

Flood tide
• Below the mean sea level-Ebb tide
• The difference in water levels between two
consecutive high tides and low tides is called
tidal range
• One tidal day is of 24 hours and 50 minutes
and there are two tidal cycles in one tidal day.
• The normal tide is a semi-diurnal tide with a
period of 12 hours and 25 minutes.
 Historic Development
• A tide mill consisted of a pond filled through a
sluice during the flood tide and emptied on the
ebb tide via an undershot waterwheel
• Tides are a result of the gravitational force of
the moon and sun as well as the revolution of
the earth
• Tide mills were in use on the coasts of Spain,
France and the UK before 1100AD and in tidal
estuaries (e.g. the Schelde river in Belgium)
around 1800 AD.
• Replaced by cheaper & convenient method of
power generation later
 Historic Developments
• Russians have built a 400 kW device
near Murmansk
• Canadians built a 17.4 MW device at
Annapolis on a small inlet off the Bay of
Fundy in 1984
• Series of small plants have been
installed in China (in 25-700 kW range)
• A 240 MW demonstration plant was built on the La Rance
estuary in France during the 1960's (160 MW output)
• Now completed 47 years of successful operation

La Rance
Tidal
Power
Station,
France
 Indian Locations

Location Mean tidal Basin area Installable Approximate Annual

range (m) (km2) capacity annual output Plant Load
(MW) (TWh/year) Factor (%)
Gulf of Kutch 5.0 170 900 1.6 22
Gulf of Khambat 7.0 1 970 7000 15.0 24
(Gujarat)
Durgaduani in 3
Sunderbans
(WB)
 Site Selection
• A place which might be suitable to produce
electricity from tidal energy would generally
have a tidal range greater than 7 m
• A narrow entrance to the inlet and plenty of
water moving through it at each tide
• There should also be a nearby demand for
electricity
• Environmental impacts need to be assessed
 Power Generation
• By building a dam across a costal bay or estuary
with large differences between low and high tides.
• The high tides allow immense amounts of water to
rush into the bay.
• The gates of the dam then shut when water level is
at its maximum height.
• Holes in the bottom of the dam let water to rush
past turbines. The flow of water generates enough
power to turn the turbines which creates electricity.
• The entire process repeats with each high tide.
 THE TIDAL BARRAGE

• It’s a huge dam built across a river estuary.

When the tide goes in and out, the water flows
through tunnels in the dam.
TIDAL ENERGY CONCEPT
 Current Technologies
1) Drag Devices Water wheels:
 insufficient compared to other modes of generation
 blade speed can not exceed that of the current

2) Lift Devices Turbines:

 wind mill technology applied to liquid environment
 more efficient then drag devices
 refined propeller achieves speeds several times
faster then the current
 Classification of Tidal power plant

• Single Basin System

– One way system
– Two way system
– Two way with pump storage system
• Double Basin System
– Simple double basin
– Double basin with pumping system
Single basin system
Tidal power generation
Double basin system
Ebb Power generating system
 Turbines used in Barrier Tidal Power Stations

Rim Turbine
Bulb Turbine

Tubular Turbine
 How it works ?
• These work rather like a hydro-
electric scheme, except that the
dam is much bigger
• A huge dam (called a "barrage") is
built across a river estuary.
• When the tide goes in and out, the
water flows through tunnels in the
dam
• The ebb and flow of the tides can
be used to turn a turbine
• Large lock gates, like the ones
used on canals, allow ships to pass
 Barrage Tidal Power: Rance Power Station

• The largest tidal power

station in the world is in the
Rance estuary in northern
France
• It was built in 1966
• Located on Rance River,
France, It has
• 24 Turbines
• Capacity of 240MW
• Annual output of
600GWh
• Supplies 0.012% of
Frances power supply
 •Dam constructed across
estuary requiring long
construction time and large
financial commitment
•Power produced by
impounding tidal waters
behind dam
•Drastically alters circulation
of estuary in addition to
attendant problems with
conventional hydroelectric
•Low-cost power production
at very large scale
250MW barrage in La Rance, France
• A major drawback of tidal power stations is that they
can only generate when the tide is flowing in or out -
in other words, only for 10 hours each day
• However, tides are totally predictable, so we can plan
to have other power stations generating at those times
when the tidal station is out of action
• Another option is to use offshore turbines, rather like
an underwater wind farm.
• This has the advantage of being much cheaper to
build, and does not have the environmental problems
that a tidal barrage would bring.
 Advantages of Tidal Energy

• It is free from pollution and inexhaustible

• Superior to hydro-power plants as it is

totally independent of rain which always
fluctuates year to year

• Tidal power plants do not require large

area of valuable land because they are
located on sea shore

• Tidal power has a unique capacity to meet

peak power demand effectively when it work
•
in combination with hydro power plant or
thermal power plant

• It does not produce any unhealthy waste

like gases, ash, atomic refuse
 Disadvantages of Tidal Energy

• These power plants can be developed only if

natural sites are available

• As the sites are available on the bay which

will be always far away from the load centers,
the power generated must transported to
long distance and increases the
. transportation cost

• Capital cost is very high compared with

conventional power plants
•
 Disadvantages of Tidal Energy

• Sea water is corrosive and it was feared that

the machinery may get corroded. Stainless
steel with high chromium content and a small
amount of molybdenum and the aluminium
bronzes proved to be good corrosion resistant
at La Rance project.

• Construction in sea or estuaries is found

difficult

• The navigation is obstructed

•
• Utilization of tidal energy on small scale
has not yet proved economical
 COST
• The 8000 MW proposed Seven Estuary
barrage system in the UK is estimated
to cost US$15 billion
• The proposed San Bernadino Strait,
2,200 MW tidal fence in the Philippines
will cost US$3 billion
 Tidal stream / Marine current
Technology
• Uses under currents of sea
• To exploit the strong tidal currents found in
shallow seas, particularly where natural
constrictions exist, like between islands
• Technology not yet fully developed (work is being
carried out only during the last 5 years)
• Devices like submerged wind turbines are used
• A 5 kW machine that has been operated in Japan
since 1990
• Tidal currents which are moving with
velocities of between 2 and 3 m/s (4 to
6 knots) to generate between 4 and 13
kW/m2.
• > 3 m/s damages blades
• Lower speeds not economical
Power from Tidal current
SeaFlow (300 kW), a prototype
turbine, which is the world’s first
offshore tidal turbine was installed
off Lynmouth, Devon in May 2003
 Tidal Turbines

• Essentially similar to Wind Turbines

• Water is 1000x the density of air
• For a 2 m/s tidal flow and 10 m radius, P is around
6 MW
• Does not disrupt tidal flow
 The
Stingray

•Hydroplane attack
angle relative to
approaching tide
water stream
Oscillate support
arm pressurise oil
to generate
electricity
Helical turbines
(like Darrieus WEG)
 TidEL –
Tidal Stream
generator

• Floats, but
restrained &
submerged to
seabed using a
mooring
• No support
structure required
• Free to move in line
with direction of
tidal flow
• Follow tides, twice a
day
 Sea Snail prototype (150 kW)
• Use hydrofoils or Sea wings to produce a downward thrust to anchor
to ocean floor
• The turbine is mounted on this stable platform
Tidal Turbine (Norway)