Tidal power plants

If we trust scientists' forecasts that non-renewable energy resources will be exhausted in the coming decades, then the search for other types of energy should begin now. If the calculations are correct, then we will have enough oil for 45-50 years, gas for 70-80 years, uranium for 100, coal for perhaps 400 years. Alternative forms of energy will become necessary for civilized humanity, like air. But taking into account the catastrophic pollution of the waste products of the entire planet as a whole, it is necessary to give preference to "clean" energy: solar radiation, wind energy, geothermal energy, water streams, tides, waves, dispersed heat energy of water and air. These sources are renewable and environmentally friendly.

By the way, the economic potential of these sources is twice as high as the annual production of all existing organic fuels. If we build wind and tidal power stations, learn how to collect the energy that the Sun gives us, then it is possible to satisfy energy demands practically all over the world.

Tidal power plants are able to convert the energy of tides into electricity . The first such power plant has earned in Russia on Kamchatka (Pauzhetskaya). Its power is 5 MW.

To build such a power plant you need a pool (an overlapped riverbed or a dam gulf). In the dam there must be culverts with installed hydro turbines, rotating the generator.

The hydraulic turbine is a shovel machine, rotated by a stream of liquid (water). Turbines can be free-jet (active) and jet-jet (reactive); By design - horizontal and vertical. Power can vary from tens to hundreds of megawatts.

How does a tidal power plant work? With the onset of the tide, water enters the basin. When water levels in the basin and in the sea are compared, the shutters of the culverts are closed. There is an ebb and there is a drop in the sea level. As soon as the water pressure becomes sufficient, power generators with turbines are switched on, until the water level of the pool decreases.

It is economically feasible to build tidal power stations where there are tidal oscillations from four meters or more. The design capacities of tidal power stations depend on the nature of the tide in the areas of construction of power plants, the volumes and areas of tidal basins, and the number of installed turbines.

Tidal power plants of bilateral operation work, according to the name, when water arrives from the sea and back. In other words, they are able to provide electricity for 4 to 5 hours, then there comes a short break (an hour or two), and the power plant is switched on again. The operating time of the turbines can be increased by upgrading the simplest tidal power plants (for example, by increasing the number of basins). However, the implementation of such projects will turn out to be a huge sum.

At all positive moments, such power plants still have disadvantages. First, they can only be built on the shores of the oceans and seas. Secondly, they work intermittently. Thirdly, do not allow to develop high power. And, finally, they are not completely ecologically safe, as they interfere with the normal exchange of fresh water and salt, thereby affecting the fauna.

One of the most economical and environmentally friendly power plants for today is a wind power station, or wind power. For her work, only the wind is needed. Variants with different capacities and, accordingly, with different prices (from 900 cu to 23,500 cu) have been developed. Some are enough to provide electricity to one private house, others can be used by large commercial and domestic industries, factories, recreation centers, high-rise hotels.