> Tidal energy is valuable but geographically constrained
Don't tides happen everywhere there is a coast (which is a lot of places)? Or is this only effective in certain tidal conditions?
Don't tides happen everywhere there is a coast (which is a lot of places)? Or is this only effective in certain tidal conditions?
One thing that's relatively unique about the UK is that different parts of their coastline experience tides at different phases -- meaning with carefully chosen placement of different tidal energy plants, you can always have some of them operating near peak production. Click around https://www.tidetimes.org.uk and you can find places with high tide times happening at just about any time of day.
If you look at a map like http://www.bidstonobservatory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016..., the best places to use tidal energy would be red areas with lots of white lines hitting the coast -- these would give you the highest-amplitude tides with the most opportunity for phasing. The UK has both.
Most regions have very small tidal ranges. That doesn't mean they have small tidal currents (think of fjords or straights for example), but it does make it more likely.
And in those fjords and straights, I reckon yhese solutions will compete with boat traffic.