First Tidal Electric Generator in North America Producing Power from the Bay of Fundy

UncleMac

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a24027/first-tidal-generator-north-america-online/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/tidal-power-bay-of-fundy-turbine-electricity-emera-hydro-1.3862227

For those who are unfamiliar with the area, the Bay of Fundy is a long inlet between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on Canada's eastern seaboard. One of the things the Fundy is famous for is tidal waters as the Atlantic rushes in and out of the bay daily, creating the largest tidal bore in the world.

The tides bring billions of water in and out of the Bay... and now people are trying to harness the power of the rushing waters to generate electricity. At this point, it is a proof of concept but the idea is to create non-polluting sustainable power and you gotta like that!!

Farback

I'd love to work on this tech. It is a controversy here with the fishermen, who fear the chop factor if there are large arrays of these genertors. I tend to think the risk is less than the reward. Green energy will get us off fossil fuels.

I've camped at the tip of Cape Split, the point of land with 200 foot cliffs, and watched these huge tide changes. Amazing sight. I've also been out on zodiacs for rescue/recovery calls on these waters. The power of the water and size of these cliffs is incredable.

UncleMac

I wonder how fast the turbine spins when under full tide? Could a whale end up as sushi?

RodaRose

That is amazing. Apparently in Maine, the U.S. is somewhat similarly harnessing the powers of the Bay of Fundy
http://www.orpc.co/content.aspx?p=h3jCHHn6gcg=

UncleMac

RodaRose wrote: »

That is amazing. Apparently in Maine, the U.S. is somewhat similarly harnessing the powers of the Bay of Fundy
http://www.orpc.co/content.aspx?p=h3jCHHn6gcg=

They've got a variety of different systems described on the website. Very cool!!