Tidal and wave power plants have varying effects on the environment, but overall the tidal and wave power systems have a much less significant impact on the environment than fossil fuels. Tidal plants and wave farms neither present any serious risk of irrevocable destruction of neither the environment nor lead to pollution as dramatically as does the consumption of fossil fuel.
However, these energy systems are not perfect and still have some detrimental effects on the environment. For instance, they entail some changes of the natural hydraulic conditions over a large area of a body of water and interfere with a number of activities, such as navigation, fisheries, and marine culture. Such changes have secondary but serious effects on the marine ecological systems, water drainage, water quality, pollution control, and many associated matters of local concern.
Korean Western Power Company
The construction of the tidal barrage by the Korean Western Power Company at Garolim Bay has been delayed because of local protest against it because of the negative environmental impacts it will have. Although tidal barrages do leave a larger impression on the environment than tidal stream systems, it is not necessarily correct to assert that the tidal barrage the Korean Western Power Company plans to build in the Garolim Bay would hurt the environment so significantly that it would not be worth the environmental cost to construct it, but rather it is because the bay has a multitude of pertinent functions to the local residents that they do not want to be limited or changed by the presence of the tidal barrage.
The tidal flat at Garolim Bay serves to provide a habitat and feeding ground for numerous aquatic species that the local residents benefit from through their fishing industry. It also replenishes the water-table levels and acts as a natural filter of pollutants. Despite the importance of tidal flat at the Garolim Bay, most of the stakeholders involved have decided that it is worth the small environmental cost to build the plant, especially because it will help to avoid the larger environmental concerns from the dependence on fossil fuel.
Overview of Advantages and Disadvantages of Tidal Power
The environmental impacts associated with barrage systems are more serious than other types of tidal power generating systems. Some of the barrage systems’ impacts include the destruction of habitats, disruption of organisms’ typical travel routes, potential electromagnetic interference, eutrophication, seawater pollution, and increased sedimentation. Additionally, hydroelectric systems are notorious for killing fish because the wasteful heat that ends up in the water reduces a fish’s capacity to store dissolved oxygen. This harms not only the fish, but also all organisms in the affected area. The blades from some of the turbines can be fatal for wandering marine life too. Many plans have been made to build a tidal barrage at the Severn tidal estuary of the coast of England, but concerns about lowering the level of the tides, decreasing the flow rate of the water, decreasing the volume of water in the estuary, and increasing silting have prevented projects from proceeding rapidly forward.
Despite these negative attributes, tidal barrage systems are popular because of their reliance on existing technology. They are also the most deleterious to the environment of all the other tidal and wave power systems. Fortunately, they are still less deleterious than fossil fuel use. However, there are still more environmentally friendly options among tidal power systems. Tidal stream generators have less of an impact on local ecosystems and tidal regimes because they are smaller. Their smaller size also prevents them from causing silting or dramatically changing the current or volume of a waterway.
The sacrifice in size does lead to a sacrifice in energy yield but does not necessarily obviate the possibility of large-scale power production as is evidenced above by the tidal stream test performed at Masset Sound. Ultimately, the advantages of tidal stream systems are many, which have led to more research regarding these benefits.
These systems attempt to mimic the natural environment they are placed in so that they do not cause any disturbances. The perfection of these systems should be pursued because they have the potential to be an alternative energy system that can provide clean, cheap electrons in an almost unlimited quantity. Full-scale testing still needs to be accomplished in order to bring these systems to that level. Ultimately, tidal stream power systems, variations of these systems, and wave farms cause virtually no environmental problems, which make them incredibly attractive alternative energy systems.
Tidal and wave power systems efficiently produce a large amount of electricity, and do so in an environmentally friendly way. Moreover, the technology in tidal and wave power has rapidly advanced expanding the available places to build these systems. The advantages of these new systems and the inherent characteristic of tidal and wave power make it a cost-effective renewable resource. There is never a shortage of electrical energy to be produced by these water currents; the systems will produce enough energy to make up for the cost to build them; and the systems will take care of themselves. They need little maintenance and a continual supply of energy is provided to the system for extraction.
The cost-effectiveness of the tidal and wave power systems, especially the smaller, newer ones like tidal stream generators and wave farms, make them really attractive to venture capitalists and open the possibility of great commercial success up. Investors are looking for a renewable energy system to replace the environmentally-damaging and extremely prevalent fossil fuel energy system, and a system that can be practically implemented. Tidal and wave power systems provide exactly what investors want and because of this they will soon be supplanting a larger amount of electricity produced by fossil fuels, which will help work toward saving the planet’s environment and solving the energy crisis.
Sources
- Bryans, A. G., B. Fox, P. A. Crossley, and M. O'Malley. 2005. Impact of tidal generation on power system operation in Ireland. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 20 (4) (NOV): 2034-40.
- Lee, Joo-Suk, and Seung-Hoon Yoo. 2009. Measuring the environmental costs of tidal power plant construction: A choice experiment study. Energy Policy 37 (12) (12): 5069-74.
- Nekrasov, A. V., and D. A. Romanenkov. 2010. Impact of tidal power dams upon tides and environmental conditions in the sea of okhotsk. Continental Shelf Research 30 (6) (04): 538-52.
- Xia, Junqiang, Roger A. Falconer, and Binliang Lin. 2010. Hydrodynamic impact of a tidal barrage in the severn estuary, UK. Renewable Energy: An International Journal 35 (7) (07): 1455-68.
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