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Renewable energy sources are most often regarded as including sources, such as solar power, wind power, wave power, geothermal power, tidal power and others.
Tidal Power
Tidal energy is an essentially renewable resource containing large amounts of potential energy which has none of the typical environmental impacts of other traditional sources of electricity such as fossil fuels or nuclear power although changing the tidal flow in a coastal region could result in a wide variety of impacts on aquatic life, consideration of which must be at the forefront of any investigation into harnessing this source of power.
In order to produce practical amounts of electricity, a difference between high and low tides of at least five metres is required. The higher the tides, the more electricity can be generated from a given site, and the lower the cost of electricity produced.
The technology required to convert tidal energy into electricity is very similar to the technology used in traditional hydro-electric power plants. The first requirement is a dam or "barrage" across a tidal bay or estuary and since building dams is an expensive process the best tidal sites are those where a bay has a narrow opening, thus reducing the length of dam which is required.
Electricity can be generated by water flowing both into and out of a bay. As there are two high and two low tides each day, electrical generation from tidal power plants is characterized by periods of maximum generation every twelve hours, with no electricity generation at the six hour mark in between.
Tidal electricity can be used to displace electricity which would otherwise be generated by fossil fuel-fired power plants, thus reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses and creation of acid rain.
There is only one major tidal generating station in operation. This is a 240 megawatt station at the mouth of the La Rance river estuary on the northern coast of France (a large coal or nuclear power plant generates about 1,000 MW of electricity). The La Rance generating station has been in operation since 1966 and has been a very reliable source of electricity for France.
Wave Power
This has great potential especially for small to medium sized schemes.
The energy in the wave is converted into pneumatic power via an oscillating water column. This pneumatic power is fed through a Wells turbine to generate electricity.
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2008 Renewable Energy Consultants