Harnessing power from our ocean waves

Image credit: The Future of Things

A recent post from the New York Times' Green Blog provides an optimistic overview of an up-and-coming renewable energy called tidal power. In short, tidal power converts the energy of tides into electricity or other useful forms of power. The tidal forces produced by the Moon and Sun, in combination with Earth's rotation, are responsible for the generation of the tides. The image above is a tidal power generator which simply draws energy from ocean currents in a way similar to how wind turbines draw energy from wind.

Two excerpts from the Green blog:

"Tides are particularly attractive sources of power because they are predictable, unlike sunshine and wind. Not surprisingly, countries with rough seas like Britain and Portugal are leading the way in exploring ocean power".

"The European Energy Association estimates that, globally, the oceans could yield over 100,000 terawatt hours a year if the technology to harness that power can be perfected. That is more than five times the electricity the world uses in a year".

Read more about this form of renewable energy here.