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costabius t1_je5nnlc wrote

Reply to comment by GraniteGeekNH in What the GIANTS behind C.M.P. don't want you to know! by mainething

I think the biggest problem is people thinking of it like a water version of solar power. Waves and tides are everywhere so just toss out some generators and soak up the free electricity. The engineering problems and maintenance requirements mean there are a tiny number of viable sites for tidal power.

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No_Landscape4557 t1_je9e4lb wrote

I can only imagine the absolute shit storm that would arise for someone proposing tidal power.

It will “ruin” fishing industry, it will forever destroy our little coastal town. “Don’t use our town for your profit” , it will destroy our ocean habitat and so on and so on.

Yea I bet like OP wrote, CMP is utterly terrified of tidal power.

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Sufficient_Risk1684 t1_je5rtke wrote

And even if you did get a working system, an area with sea ice in the winter would probably destroy it.

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costabius t1_je6e93f wrote

That's an engineering challenge, either you design around the problem or that eliminates another set of potential generation locations.

Sea ice isn't insurmountable, you can submerge generators underneath it, but that needs a system that is self-contained and doesn't require maintenance in the winter. Probably not a solution for grid connections, but small scale for powering beacons or research tasks.

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salvelinustrout t1_je9ahyd wrote

And unlike with conventional hydro dams where the point of entry for the water powering the turbine is (relatively) small and feasible to keep clear of debris, no tidal generators have been designed yet that aren’t pretty easily fucked by a single submerged log or other significant piece of jetsam.

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