Different from other directions of exploiting clean energy sources. The exploitation of tidal power is based on the principle of operation from the rising and falling of the tide. In addition to the rise and fall of the tide, flooding affects the well-being of the people around, but besides the operation of the tide, it can also provide clean electricity for the national electricity industry.

Tidal energy source concept

Tidal energy is a type of renewable energy, produced by the ebb and flow of the tides. In the 20th century, engineers developed ways to take advantage of the motion of ocean waves as well as tidal action to generate electricity. Those methods all use a special generator to convert tidal energy into electricity.

Harnessing tidal energ

Is tidal energy mining good?

The exploitation of tidal energy opens up a great prospect, minimizing carbon dioxide emissions causing the greenhouse effect. In Sweden they have developed a device to harness energy from the oceans. It's a turbine-underwater kite with a kite on top, carrying a tidal-powered turbine underneath (we'll learn more about turbine kites in the section on how it works).

There have been many scenarios predicting damage to coastal countries when sea level rises in the global context causing inundation of coastal lowlands and islands. At the same time, fossil fuel resources are gradually depleted, causing the prices of gasoline, oil, gas, coal to increase and reserves are also being exhausted, and so countries around the world including Vietnam. has been interested in renewable energy sources

Working principle of tidal energy source

Unlike other power devices, the bulkiest part of the Searaser is not in the ocean, but right on the shore. In this way, the main difficulties of Tidal Energy industry such as complicated operation, rapid wear and tear, and ensuring safe operation in unfavorable weather such as rough seas have been solved. , rainstorms sometimes in unfavorable weather tidal energy equipment is strongly active of moving water bodies.

Working principle of tidal energy

The key to the system is the use of a device called a turbine, whose blades rotate in the same direction, regardless of the direction of airflow.

The Limpet system is a good example of this direction of exploitation of tidal energy. The system works according to the following principle:

At low tide: Charge cycle.

High tide: Compression cycle.

Low Tide: The cycle discharges, ends, and recharges for the next cycle.

The change in the height of the water column makes the turbine rotate to generate electricity, each Limpet machine can reach from 250 KW to 500 KW, equivalent to the capacity of a Hyundai generator 250kw - 500kw (equivalent to a generator set by Hyundai). oil fuel industry). In addition to causing a lot of negative effects on human life for many decades, scientists have tried to convert wave energy into useful energy. But the waves are so scattered that they are difficult to exploit economically.

However, tidal energy is still in the research and development stage. The amount of energy generated is very small. There are not many tidal power stations in the world. The first tidal power station was built in the Rhine, France.

On the other hand, in some places, the method of generating electricity from ocean waves is to use a generator placed horizontally on the sea surface like a pump, the piston is connected to the buoy, depending on the waves rising and falling, the piston also moves up and down, converting the dynamics of ocean waves into the dynamics of compressed air. Air is compressed under high pressure through the nozzle of the turbine to make the generator work. At that time, the energy of the waves was converted into electricity.

How to generate electric current from ocean waves

But in general, almost all types of electricity exploitation using wave energy do not consume any "start-up" energy, do not pollute the environment, and the cost is not too high compared to other mining systems. exploit other energy sources, so it is a clean energy source, hopefully helping to solve the risk of energy shortage of the whole world.

Advantages and disadvantages of the tidal energy system

Tidal energy has great promise because ocean waves are an inexhaustible source of energy, around the clock in any weather conditions, different from wind and solar energy, but also contain some limitations when operating and exploiting this renewable fuel source.

Advantages of tidal energy source:

The advantage of the method of harnessing electricity from tidal currents is that it is an inexhaustible renewable resource, produces a lot of energy, and when it works, does not interfere with ships. The turbine's propeller has a slow rotation speed, which does not pose too much danger to creatures living in the ocean. The design is similar to a wind turbine, but the water is more stable and easier to control, so the amount of electricity generated from tidal energy will be more even. As an inexhaustible resource, the device can be operated under any weather conditions.

Disadvantages of tidal energy sources:

However, the installation of this turbine is very complicated. The system is large in size and has the potential to seriously affect the environment. In addition, the difficulty lies in the equipment part because generators often have to be submerged in deep water, which is not convenient for operation, and sea water is a strong corrosive environment that so far there is no solution to overcome. thoroughly recovered. Therefore, the equipment is expensive and the operating costs are high.

Not only that, the disadvantage of tidal energy is that it has to depend on the ebb and flow of the tide. Influenced by many natural influences.

Application of tidal energy source of Vietnam and the whole world

Internationally today

Currently, about 100 companies worldwide are working on converting energy from the ocean into electricity. Energy from the ocean also has more potential than wind energy because water has a higher density than air. "Heavy water" is taken from a barrel of seawater, the energy of which is equivalent to 400 barrels of the finest petroleum.

Application of tidal energy

Currently, many countries in the world have used energy from the sea, for example:

In 1966, in France, built the world's first tidal power plant of an industrial scale with a capacity of 240 MW, which is one of the largest tidal power plants in the world. accounts for almost the highest proportion of electricity supply for the electricity industry in France
1984: Two decades later Canada operated a 20 MW plant, producing 30 million kilowatts of electricity annually. equivalent to the amount of electricity obtained when we are using 10 industrial generators 350kw

China is also a country that is very interested in clean energy, currently China has 7 tidal power plants in operation with a total capacity of 11 MW

Recently, Korea has paid great attention to exploiting and using tidal energy. A 254 MW Shiwa tidal power plant was completed in 2010; in Incheon city since 2007 has built the world's largest 812 MW plant with 32 units and will be put into operation in 2015.

In Viet Nam

Vietnam with 3000km of coastline has great potential to develop energy from waves. However, unfortunately, the investment and exploitation of this clean energy source is quite slow compared to what the world has been doing. At present, marine energy development in our country is only in its very early stages. Besides, Vietnam is still quite slow in considering whether to join the International Group on Ocean Energy. At this time, Vietnam needs to soon join international organizations to be able to effectively implement the green energy strategy, contributing to sustainable socio-economic development

In short, this is a relatively new renewable energy source, so there are still many difficulties, principles and technology are still experimental problems. And so there are always more corrections and additions through each research. According to initial speculations, the energy produced by this inexhaustible ocean water is enough to last mankind for over 1 billion years. Or waves, tides, ocean currents... that endure with time, can provide humanity with great energy!