Britain: Tidal Lagoon Power Stations
March 2nd, 2015“Man needs only to exercise his engineering ingenuity to convert the ocean’s surge into a great national asset.”
–John F. Kennedy, July 16th, 1963
Via: Wired:
The world’s first electricity-generating tidal lagoons are to be built in six locations across Britain, with at least one already in the planning stage.
Four of them will be located in Wales — in Swansea, Cardiff, Newport and Colwyn Bay — and there’ll be one each in Bridgewater in Somerset and West Cumbria. Tidal Lagoon Power, the firm behind the project, eventually believes that six lagoons could generate eight percent of the UK’s electricity for a cost of £12 billion. The plan is backed by energy secretary Ed Davey.
Here’s how it’ll work in the first location, Swansea Bay. A sea wall eight kilometres long will be built to encircle a large area of water three kilometres out from the coast, isolating it from the sea like a lagoon. Turbines will be set in the wall, which will then generate energy from the difference in water height four times a day as the tide rises and falls.
