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Power intermittency, redundancy and tidal phasing around the United Kingdom
Author(s) -
HARDISTY JACK
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geographical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.071
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1475-4959
pISSN - 0016-7398
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4959.2007.00263.x
Subject(s) - intermittency , redundancy (engineering) , tidal power , mains electricity , electricity , environmental science , grid , hydrology (agriculture) , marine engineering , meteorology , engineering , geology , electrical engineering , geography , voltage , geodesy , geotechnical engineering , turbulence , reliability engineering
The tidal resource is large in north‐western European waters and a number of axial flow, vertical rotor and oscillating hydroplane schemes are approaching full‐scale design and construction. However, the intermittency of the output from such devices that only generate electricity during the flood and ebb suggests that back‐up generating capacity would be required with the associated inbuilt redundancy. Basic, shallow water tidal theory is reviewed and it is shown that carefully sized tidal stream installations in the Clyde, Tees, Humber, Severn, Menai Straits and the Mersey can utilise the phase locked occurrence of tidal flow and provide a more or less regular and continuous supply of electrical power to the National Grid. Estimates are given for the required capacity of the installations and a scheme is proposed by which an installed capacity of little more than, for example, 200 MW can provide a continuous supply of about 45 MW from these sites, thus achieving a significant and uninterrupted contribution to the Government's 2010 and 2020 targets.