Tidal energy is a great source of clean renewable energy, but most of us don’t know about how it works? Every day, the tide moves a huge amount of water twice, and harnessing it could provide a great deal of energy, which can make up around 20% of Britain’s needs.
The energy generated through this process is reliable and plentiful, but converting it into useful electrical power is not easy. Some time back, “tidal power” meant “tidal barrage”,but nowadays there are other options as well.
The working of a tidal barrage is similar to 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.
This ebb and flow of the tides can be used to turn a turbine, or it can be used to push air through a pipe, which then turns a turbine. Large lock gates are also built to allow ships to pass.
The largest tidal power station in the world was built in 1966, and is situated in the Rance estuary in northern France, near St. Malo.
However, the biggest drawback of tidal power stations is that they can only generate when the tide is flowing in or out. This means that power can be generated practically only for 10 hours each day. However, as 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, enabling us to get the required amount of electricity for 24 hours.
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