- #1
Nathan Townsend
- 3
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I have been kicking around an idea for a while about generating electricity from ocean tides. The traditional approach is to use the flow of water through a channel to turn a turbine, which essentially blocks the channel for sea life and water craft.
It seems more practical to use the rise and fall of the tide like a slow moving, yet powerful piston. The way I envision it, there would be a barge attached to posts set in the ocean floor. As the tide moved the barge, gears on the posts would turn a turbine on the barge.
Say two complete turns of the piston occur every 24 hours. The height of the tide is 3 Meters. The weight of the barge is 1,500,000 kg. Assuming 100% of the energy could be converted into electricity, how much electricity could this device put into the grid?
Thanks in advance for the help.
It seems more practical to use the rise and fall of the tide like a slow moving, yet powerful piston. The way I envision it, there would be a barge attached to posts set in the ocean floor. As the tide moved the barge, gears on the posts would turn a turbine on the barge.
Say two complete turns of the piston occur every 24 hours. The height of the tide is 3 Meters. The weight of the barge is 1,500,000 kg. Assuming 100% of the energy could be converted into electricity, how much electricity could this device put into the grid?
Thanks in advance for the help.