What are The Environment Impacts of Tidal Power

What are The Environment Impacts of Tidal Power. Definition of tidal energy or tidal power is a kind of hydropower that converts tides energy into useful forms of energy like electricity.

Even if tidal energy not yet widely used, it has potential source of energy for electricity generation in the future. Compare with solar power and wind energy, tidal energy are more predictable. In many renewable energy sources, tidal power has limited availability of sites and high cost. Recent technological improvements and developments, both in turbine technology (such as cross flow turbines and new axial turbines) and design (such as tidal lagoons and dynamic tidal power) indicate that tidal power total availability may be much higher than previously assumed, also that environment costs and economic can be brought down to competitive levels.

Tide mills have been used both in the Atlantic coast of North America and in Europe. The large storage ponds contained incoming water, and when the tide went out, it turned waterwheels that used the mechanical power it produced to mill grain. In the 19th century, in the Europe and U.S. was introduced process of using spinning turbines and falling water to create electricity. The Rance Tidal Power Station in France that was operation in 1966 is the first large-scale tidal power plant in the world.

Tidal energy is the technology that draws on energy inherent in the characteristic of orbital Moon–Earth system. Other natural power that exploited by technology originate indirectly or directly with the wind, sun, including fossil fuel, conventional hydroelectric, wave, biofuel and solar power. Meanwhile nuclear energy use fissionable elements from the Earth and  geothermal energy taps internal heat of the earth, which comes from heat produced through radioactive decay and residual heat from planetary accretion. A tidal generator generate electricity from tidal flows energy. The potential of a site for tidal electricity generation depend on tidal current velocities and tidal variation.

What are The Environment Impacts of Tidal Power

The turbines of tidal power with the rotating blades can accidentally kill swimming fish and other sea life. Some fish may no longer in the area if threatened with a noise-making and constant rotating object. The main factor when placing tidal energy generators is marine life. Because of that, the precautions are made to make sure that as every marine life and animals as possible will not be influenced by it.

Tidal turbines

The environmental concern of tidal energy is came with blade strike and entanglement of marine life as high speed water raises the risk of organisms being pushed through or near these devices. It is also a concern about how the creation of EMF and acoustic outputs affects marine life. Noted that due to tidal energy devices are in the water, so the acoustic output can be greater than from offshore wind energy. The acoustic output sound generated by the tidal energy devices has varying effects on marine mammals especially those who echolocate to navigate and communicate in the ocean such as whales and dolphins. Beside that this energy removal can also cause disrupting sediment processes and degrading farfield water quality.

Tidal barrage

The barrage installation can change the shoreline within the bay, affecting an ecosystem that depends on tidal flats. Inhibiting flow of water out and in of the bay, there may also be less flushing of the bay and causing additional turbidity and less saltwater, which may result in the death of fish that a vital food source to mammals and birds. Migrating fish may difficult to access their breeding streams, also may attempt to pass through the tidal turbines. The same acoustic concerns also apply to the tidal barrages.

Tidal lagoon

The main environmentally concerns are changes in sedimentation processes, acoustic output from turbines and blade strike on fish attempting to enter the lagoon. However, all these effects do not affect the entire bay or estuary or bay.

Corrosion

Salt water will cause corrosion in metal things. It will be difficult to maintain tidal energy facilities because of their depth in the water and their size. In order to reduce or eliminate corrosion effect, the use nickel-copper alloys, stainless steels, copper-nickel alloys, high-nickel alloys and titanium as corrosion-resistant materials should be considered.

Proper maintenance is required to minimize the harmful chemicals that come from mechanical fluids like lubricants to enter the marine environment.

Reference :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

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