POWER IN THE WAVES

FINDING THE RHYTHM

“In the silence between whisper and shout. The space between wonder and doubt.” – Rush,

‘Between The Sun And Moon’

If we were in a position to tap into the celestial mechanics of our solar system, power generation wouldn’t ever be an issue. The incredible amount of potential energy stored in the Earth’s orbit alone would power an untold number of civilizations until our Sun becomes a red giant in a few billion years.

We can’t do that, of course. But our unique placement in the solar system allows us to do the next best thing:

Tap the artifact of celestial mechanics: The tide.

It’s this side effect of celestial mechanics that we can draw upon to produce an incredible amount of power. We just need to find the right rhythm, as a species.

ADVANTAGES TO TIDAL POWER

The tides produce about 3,000 gigawatts (GW) of power. Much of that is dispersed throughout the deep, open ocean of course. Along the coast, conservatively looking at only the most promising sites, around 200 GW of power can be produced if we build out a full tidal power network.

That’s about 8% of all the energy used globally every day……