Nova Scotia Steps towards Sustainable Marine Energy Development

Nova Scotia sets next steps to take advantage of the huge potential from the development of the marine renewable sector. Regarding this, in order to establish a pathway able to attract the investments and industries, Nova Scotia has approved the Marine Renewable Energy Strategy this week.

Among the great advantages, marine energy has the potential to contribute to

1. Reduce greenhouse emissions


2. Energy needs with a local resource of clean energy


3. Offer economic opportunities at the local level from emerging industrial sector.

There are still a lot of things to be developed. From the News release: This Strategy acknowledges that it will take time to develop technologies that can withstand the high current velocities and extreme tidal ranges of Nova Scotia's coastal resources, particularly within the Bay of Fundy on the province's west coast.

Further, the impacts of MRE devices-such as tidal, wind, and wave technologies-on ocean habitats, ecosystems, seascapes, and other ocean uses are still under review. As such, the Nova Scotia Government has articulated a strategy that is cautious, incremental, and designed to protect Nova Scotians' interests in their marine environment.

Resources:

Marine Renewable Energy Strategy

Marine Renewable Energy Fact Sheet

Quick Facts and quotes

Image: New Energy Corporation's 5 kW EnCurrent tidal turbine test.

Tidal power potential in USA

Recently I have written about the wave & tidal potential resource in UK. It's time to show a new mapping tool for the tidal power potential in USA.

This interactive and web-based GIS system has been created by the Georgia Tech University based on a database-driven mapping tool. You can check their "Assessment of Energy Production Potential from Tidal Streams in the United States"

Check the tidal power potential map in USA

This group from GTU has pointed several clues about tidal energy:

• It can be harnessed wherever there is moving water in significant volumes.


• Tidal stream is deterministic and and the energy production can be forecasted accuratly.


• This predictibility eases the installation, operation and maintenance.


• There are a lot of hot spots: Knik Arm, AK; Tacoma Narrows, WA; Golden Gate, CA; Muskeget Channel, MA; Western Passage, ME, Puget Sound, New York, Connecticut, Cook Inlet, Southeast Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands among others.


• Besides large scale power production, it can be useful as local and reliable energy source for remote and dispersed coastal communities and islands.

Criterias to be taken into account when you are involved in the process of selection of location:

1. Tidal current velocity: the speed and volume of water passing through the site in space and time.


2. Site characteristics:  bathymetry, water depth, geology of the seabed and environmental impacts will determine the deployment method needed and the cost of installation.


3. Electrical grid connection: the seafloor cable distance from the proposed site to a grid access point will help determine the viability of an installation.

UK has no doubts they should develop this industry in order to become leading exporter of wave and tidal power. As the team behind the map has written: "Tidal energy is one of the fastest growing emerging technologies in the renewable sector and is set to make a major contribution to carbon free energy generation."

What will USA do with this tidal potential?

Tidal resource in UK

Yesterday we published "wave resource in UK" so now it's the chance for tidal power.

Former DTI [currently DECC] estimated an available huge potential of 3000GW of tidal energy but, unfortunately, less than 3% is located in areas suitable for power generation. There are a lot of factors and inputs to be considered in the estimation of the tidal current potential as it is very site depending [seabed, bathymetrics, estuaries, etc.]

Note: There is a great paper from Stephen Salter: "Correcting the Under-estimate of the Tidal-Stream Resource of the Pentland Firth"

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  online interactive webGIS version of the UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources Atlas

  
  


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  Tide resource map

  
  

In 2001, a list with 42 sites around the UK suitable for tidal stream generation was launched and just the ten most promising tidal stream sites could offer a potential of 36 TWh/y, which means at least 34% of the UK's electricity demand.



Tidal power has the distinct advantage of being highly predictable compared with some other forms of renewable energy. The regularity of the tides, along with the huge energy potential, therefore helps to make tidal energy development an attractive resource option.

Image: Average Annual Tidal Power Crown ©2004

Wave resource in UK

Nowadays we are enjoying great news even coming from mass media about the huge potential and possibilities of wave and tidal sector. Guardian published early this year "UK could become leading exporter of wave and tidal power, say MPs" based on a report from Energy and Climate Change Committee calling on government to establish long term goals for marine energy to give guarantees and estability for further industrial developments.

WAVES

But, what is the real potential of waves? There are several studies trying to bring light to this issue. Independently of which one you read, all of them assure a potential far beyond our electrical energy consumption even highlighting that the wave global power potential is estimated to be around 8,000-80,000TWh/y (1-10TW), which is the same order of magnitude as world electrical energy consumption.

Evidently, not all the spots has the same potential. Best spots are found between 30-60 degrees latitude with a potential of 20-70 kW/m because the strong storms there. But for 30 degrees latitude there is a good choice when the waves come from regular wind blowing. Even with a less energy/potential, these places has an advantage over the first ones because the variability is reduced as well, which means generate electricity in a more regular basis and, maybe, reduce the mechanical efforts suffered by the devices.

UK

It is expected that marine energy could provide up to 27GW of capacity in the UK by 2050, much of which is expected to be deployed after 2020...but it will not become real if there isn't a real support from the Government today.

In 2008 the Department of Energy and Climate Change [DECC] published an online interactive webGIS version of the UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources Atlas with the clue of the highest potential spots.

The most conservative studies estimate the accesible potential around 50 TWh/y mainly situated off the northwest coast of Scotland and the seas of the southwest of England. This potential represents 12.4% of UK electricity generation, demanding the commercial development of the industry which both will lead to a cost decrease and will help in the path to become UK a leader in this area...but if there is a industrial development, the potential resource technically available could be much higher, as the wind industry development has demonstrated.

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  online interactive webGIS version of the UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources Atlas

  
  


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  Wave resource map

  
  

Image: Annual Mean Wave Height Crown ©2004