Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Sea is generally less wave-tossed, but completes the enormous tidal pool
in which the UK sits. Along the northern tip of the British mainland is
the Pentland Firth, a channel through which daily rip tides rush back and
forth between the Atlantic and the North Sea. It could be called the Saudi
Arabia of ocean energy (if anyone could design equipment robust to with-
stand its turbulence). It also has, in the Severn estuary, an exceptionally
favourable conduit for tidal power, should it choose to exploit it.
Tidal power
Tidal power itself can be divided into two categories: tidal barrages and
tidal streams.
Tidal barrages
Some efforts to exploit tidal power with barrages go back many cen-
turies. The eleventh century
Domesday Book
mentions a tidal mill at
Woodbridge in Suffolk in the UK. This had gates that let in the incoming
tide, but which shut the moment the water started to go out. It effectively
dammed up seawater and released it to drive a water wheel that could
The La Rance tidal barrage is the world's biggest.
