Those figures seem quite small when one considers the size of the projects
and the unpredictable effects of changing the way the currents and tides
run.


The problem seems to be that no matter what you try to generate power from
any naturally occurring force like wind or tides or even the sun, you
actually are taking power from the earth and if you do enough of it, you
alter the environment in some way, often a way which was unexpected.


Brian

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This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

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"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 9 Oct 2016 10:10:50 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

After Mr Trump has finished his Mexican wall, perhaps he could build one
down the north sea and around the English channel, and we could make that
the border and use it to generate tidal power?
Brian

That general idea has been considered. In the late David MacKay's
book, he refers to work by Cartwright on estimating the average tidal
powers across major sea boundaries around the UK*. For example, across
the Strait of Dover, 16.7GW; across the Irish Sea from Wexford to St.
David's Head, 45GW; a long one running from Malin Head in N. Ireland
all the way around Scotland and the Shetland Isles to Floro in Norway,
60GW, and an even longer one across the Western Approaches, from
Valentia in S.W. Ireland across to Ushant in Brittany, 190GW.

But somehow I don't think anyone is actually going to build barriers
across any one of them to tap that power!

* http://tinyurl.com/6cp8c4c et seq.

Then of course there's this: http://tinyurl.com/d8c5tzh

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Chris