[bruce511]

The sea is a harsh environment, but the energy it contains, in the form of waves (basically concentrated wind) and tides is enormous (partly thanks to the density of water.)

Of course, like with all renewable, location matters. But there are lots of places with strong tides, and lots of places with reliable waves.

Harvesting this abundant energy at scale, with reasonable maintenence costs will be the next breakthrough in green energy.

[mywacaday]

I've often thought why not dam a whole estuary or bay and use hydro to collect the energy on the the fall and rise of the tide. I know the environmental impact wouldake it unpalatable but are there any reasons it wouldn't work?

[lelag]

It's been done. Biggest one is Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station[1] and France had a 240MW tidal plant since the 60s [2].

This type of project has been few and far between and I would guess they might be very costly to build and maintain compared to the harvested energy.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sihwa_Lake_Tidal_Power_Station [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rance_Tidal_Power_Station

[macNchz]

This is interesting–it made me wonder if this had ever been considered on NYC's East River, which is a tidal estuary with strong currents. Turns out there's been a company working on it for a while, with free-moving turbines rather than something that spans the whole thing: https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/articles/tidal-testing-und...

[KeplerBoy]

Meet project Atlantropa, a proposed plan to dam the Mediterranean (or more accurately the atlantic ocean) at the strait of Gibraltar. A project so absurd and gigantic it would deserve its own thread really.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantropa

[bagels]

Meanwhile, Egypt wants to expand the mediterranian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qattara_Depression_Project

[KeplerBoy]

That's interesting,I have never heard of it before.

It seems outright feasible and sensible in comparison.

[himinlomax]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rance_Tidal_Power_Station

240 MW, built in 1966.

[flipbrad]

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/1-severn-tidal-po...

[hardlianotion]

That Severn project has on-again, off-again cycles that are typical of so many UK infrastructure projects. It's a little depressing.

[theropost]

Where I'm from they have some of the highest tides in the entire world and there's an area not far from here that has always been sort of a local talking candidate for such a huge project.

https://earthsciencesociety.com/2014/05/01/a-tidal-power-lag...