At 300MW, the project would be the largest tidal power project in the world, according to the developers, topping the capacity of the 240MW French tidal power plant in LaRance.
Tidal Electric's offshore tidal power generation, also called ‘tidal lagoons’ is a new approach to tidal power conversion, which the company says resolves the environmental and economic problems of the familiar tidal barrage technology.
Although it has been in use for many years, Tidal Electric says the tidal barrage is unsuitable for broad-scale commercial use because of environmental and economic drawbacks due, primarily, to its shoreline location. Instead, Tidal Electric's tidal lagoons use a rubble mound impoundment structure and low-head hydroelectric generating equipment situated a kilometre or more offshore in a high tidal range area.
Shallow tidal flats provide the most economical sites. Multi-cell impoundment structures provide higher load factors (about 62%) and have the flexibility to shape the output curve in order to dispatch power in response to demand price signals.
Next steps for the project are to conduct engineering feasibility studies similar to those that were recently successfully concluded in the UK by WS Atkins Engineering for Tidal Electric's Swansea Bay project.
