Ocean Energy Generating technologies for deriving electrical power from the ocean include tidal power, wave power, ocean thermal energy conversion, ocean currents, ocean winds and salinity gradients. Of these, the three most well-developed technologies are tidal power, wave power and ocean thermal energy conversion. Tidal power requires large tidal differences which, in the U.S., occur only in Maine and Alaska. Ocean thermal energy conversion is limited to tropical regions, such as Hawaii, and to a portion of the Atlantic coast. Wave energy has a more general application, with potential along the California coast. The western coastline has the highest wave potential in the U.S.; in California, the greatest potential is along the northern coast.
Ocean Energy Ocean energy systems produce power from either the movement of waves and tides or the temperature differences that exist in the ocean. Ocean energy topics include thermal energy conversion systems (closed-cycle, open-cycle, and hybrid), tidal power systems, and wave power systems.
Ocean Energy Technologies - Tapping into the Ocean's Vast Energy Resource For thousands of years, the ocean has provided people with food and transportation. Today, it's starting to provide us with another valuable resource--energy. Covering 70 percent of the Earth, the ocean is a gigantic solar collector that absorbs and stores heat. This heat can be extracted and used to generate electricity. The ocean also contains vast amounts of energy in the form of waves, tides and currents. To produce power, the motion of these waves, tides and currents is used to drive a turbine-generator similar to those found in hydropower plants.
Power from the Tides The energy contained in the tidal power of our seas is a major resource of energy. Tides are generated by the gravitational and rotational forces on the earth, involving the sun and the moon. Tidal energy is one of the oldest forms of energy used by humans. Indeed, tide mills, in use on the Spanish, French and British coasts, date back to the 11th century. Tide mills consisted of a storage pond, filled by the incoming (flood) tide through a sluice and emptied during the outgoing (ebb) tide through a water wheel.
Tidal Electric, Inc. Tidal Electric, Inc. ("TE") has developed and patented a tidal generator capable of inexpensive commercial-scale electrical power production that utilizes the oceans’ tides as its sole power source. Tidal Electric’s tidal generator combines existing hydroelectric power generation technology with conventional maritime water-impoundment techniques and configures a system of delivering large amounts of electrical power, on a scale comparable to nuclear and fossil fuel power plants.
Tidal Energy There are a few places in the world where there is a large enough difference between the high and low tides of the ocean to generate electricity. The gravity of the moon pulls on the earth and causes our tides to rise and fall as it travels in its orbit. Water can be collected behind a DAM at high tide, held for a few hours after the tide changes, and then released. As it surges down to the lower level, it turns turbines and generates electricity.
Tidal Energy Tidal electricity generation involves construction of a barrage across an estuary to block the incoming and outgoing tide. The head of water is then used to drive turbines to generate electricity as in hydroelectric dams. Barrages can be designed to generate electricity on the ebb side, on the flood side, or both.
Tidal Energy Tidal energy works from the power of changing tides. Tidal changes in sea level can be used to generate electricity, by building a dam across a costal bay or estuary with large differences between low and high tides. The high tides allow emense amounts of water to rush into the bay. The gates of the dam then shut when water level is at its maximum height. Holes in the bottom of the dam let water (at great speed and pressure) to rush past turbines. The flow of water generates enough power to turn the turbines which creates electricity. The entire process repeats with each high tide.
Tidal Power Tidal Power Plants can be used to make electricity. Tides are the daily movements of large bodies of water caused by the attraction of the sun and moon on the rotating Earth. Tides have a regular schedule, they rise and fall twice each day. Tides can be effected by seasons and storms. Tides are lower in the winter and late fall when the sun's pull on the tides is not as strong. The sun and the moon help make tidal power but in some places it is to weak to be useful and in others it is strong enough to be used. The energy of the tides comes from the rotational energy of the Earth.
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