![]() ![]() The station, which produced enough electricity to power 4,500 homes, stopped operations in 2019 after the generator failure and the order from DFO, also issued that year. The utility says the decision to permanently retire the 37-year old Annapolis Generating Station in Annapolis Royal, N.S., was due to the failure of a "crucial component" in the generator and an authorization required by the Department of Fisheries Oceans after it determined the facility caused serious harm to fish. This article was originally written by Adam Moreton, Writer.Nova Scotia Power has decided to pull the plug on North America's only tidal power generating station and wants its customers to pay $25 million over the next decade to write off the asset. We expect it can have a faster cost reduction by 2030,” she says. “It has some greater advantages over some of the other marine (wave, offshore wind) resources. King Sound, north of Broome, has great potential but is quite shallow and particularly remote.ĪRENA’s Scott Grierson says far-flung sites could support off-grid mining, minerals processing and potential export industries in renewable hydrogen and ammonia.Īll sites will face a challenge to become economically viable, but Dr Penesis says tidal energy has advantages – predictability, being less in need of back-up, having low visual impact, working effectively on or off grid – that suggest it could become affordable relatively quickly. The Clarence and Dundas straits near Darwin have an estimated combined resource of 1.3GW. Other prospective sites are largely in the far north. It could be connected to the national grid or off-grid to Flinders Island, which is currently reliant on a diesel-fuelled generator. ![]() Dr Penesis says it could have a capacity of 350MW, generating about three terawatt hours of electricity a year – nearly a third of what Tasmania uses annually. One of the high-potential sites that will be studied is Banks Strait, which stretches between Tasmania’s north-eastern tip and the Furneaux island group. Project chief investigator Irene Penesis, an associate professor at the maritime college, says Australia’s potential installed tidal energy capacity could easily exceed 1.5GW – roughly the scale of Hazelwood, the giant Victorian brown coal generator that was retired in March. Projects are under way in Canada’s Bay of Fundy and at testing sites in Ireland and France, and the maritime college recently completed a trial in Launceston’s Tamar River for Australian manufacturer MAKO Tidal Turbines. The turbine is connected to a gearbox that turns a generator, creating electricity. In simple terms, a tidal energy works via a turbine works like a wind turbine, with blades rotating 12-to-18 times a minute depending on tide strength. And there will be an assessment of the cost of connecting high-potential tidal energy sites to either the national grid or off-grid sites. ![]() There will also be a detailed feasibility study of two sites with potential for a commercial-scale tidal plant. The results will be published in an online atlas similar in style to a CSIRO wave energy map completed earlier this year. The three-year plan involves developing a national hydrodynamic tidal model that can map the tidal energy resource to 500m and identifying the most promising regions for energy extraction. This gap should be filled through a new $5.85 million project, led by researchers at the University of Tasmania’s Australian Maritime College in partnership with ARENA, the CSIRO and the University of Queensland. Until now he answer has basically been: we don’t really know.Īustralia’s tidal resource has only been modelled to a resolution of 10km – not fine grained enough to be meaningful given the impact of local geography. Usually, they ask authorities for information about the potential for development around the continent. Though invisible in most discussions of the future of electricity – tidal energy didn’t rate a mention in chief scientist Alan Finkel’s recent review of the future of the National Electricity Market – there has been interest from some investors in the possibility of tidal energy. At a time when a rising proportion of electricity generation comes from inconstant sources, and the need for reliability has become a mantra in public debate, the tides along Australia’s vast coast are potentially a significant untapped resource. Estimates suggest, at the best locations, tidal energy could power a turbine for between 18 and 22 hours a day, every day. ![]()
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