On Tue, 31 May 2011 18:32:34 -0700 (PDT), Robatoy
wrote:

On May 31, 8:57Â*pm, dpb wrote:
On 5/31/2011 6:53 PM, Robatoy wrote:
...

I spent some time talking with the operators of the Annapolis Royal
Tidal Power station.
Their studies run into the same cyclical issues as does wind, with the
odd exception that they can count on the moon coming around. Really
interesting design.

Indeed, altho it's much more predictable/repeatable than wind. Â*I'd
think the random component from storms, etc., would be a very small
fraction for them. Â*OTOH, the averages are fairly consistent over the
long term w/ wind, but the short term random variations are quite large.
Â* Like last couple of days--we had 18 hours of 30+ mph sustained wind w/
50-60 mph gusts until roughly 8 PM last night. Â*Within an hour sustained
winds dropped to under 10 and stayed there until just within the last
hour or so today they've come back up to near 20 after being 15 or under
the last 24. Â*Of course, of the previous 12 hours prior to the time that
they exceed 30 mph at roughly 1 PM, roughly 9 hrs were under 10 mph
while the minimum generation level is 9 mph. Â*That's hardly a consistent
fuel source even if it is cheap. Â*

Yet this area has one of the highest annual average wind speeds in an
accessible location that makes building large scale wind farms as
economical as they're going to get from the physical side (unlike places
like, say, Mt Washington, etc., that have incredible winds but are a)
very isolated areas and b) highly impractical to get the power from even
if had the turbine.

Do you have any links that might have convenient data to look at for the
tidal generation output? Â*I know where US EIA data links are; not sure
what there is up north.


A cursory look and I found this for you:
http://tinyurl.com/3rtyqqu

Hard data is out there somewhere.

Truth!

--
Education is when you read the fine print.
Experience is what you get if you don't.
-- Pete Seeger