Coast Guard Starts Using Tidal Power

The Coast Guard has launched the first tidal power project that produces usable electricity. The experimental project is located in Maine and online as you read this.

We think we are the masters of the world that surrounds us, but such notions are laughable. Just consider energy. We are so inefficient at obtaining it that the notion of energy efficiency is laughable as it is currently used. More than our entire world wide energy needs hits the planet in one day in the form of solar energy, yet we barely tap it.

The oceans are another area of massive energy supply that we barely tap. Energy moves through the ocean every minute. It can be in wave form. In the case of the Coast Guard, the energy finally be tapped is tidal power. The Coast Guard facility in Eastport, Maine, sits in an area with a tidal surge of roughly 20 feet. That means the tide comes in 20 feet in the morning then turns around and goes out again. The process then flips around and repeats in the evening all thanks to the orbit of the moon. It does this every day, day after day, year after year, century after century. 

What if you could harvest that energy? It would be like tapping into a never ending electric outlet that produces energy without any byproducts like pollution. Well, the tidal energy platforms try to do this. They are in their infancy, so there are many different approaches. Some are brilliant and some are…odd. The version being used by the Coast Guard essentially works like a wind turbine, but is placed under water. As the tide moves past, it spins the blades. They then pass through a number of gears until they eventually crank a generator and produce electricity. Simple. Consistent. Clean. 

The Maine project is a two-month trial experiment. It would be foolhardy to suggest that we will all be switching over to tidal energy any time in the near future, but the process has to start somewhere. If the Coast Guard experiment is a success, it will be a huge step for tidal energy towards credibility. Once that occurs, the ocean will be our oyster!