List of Tidal Power Plants and Future Tidal Stations- Facing Difficult Times

Tidal Wave Energy is still a very niche technology with tidal barrages generating most of the electricity in a few power stations.Most of the tidal power plants using the modern tidal turbine technology are still in the pilot phase and generate negligible power.However tidal power stations have the potential to generate large amounts of energy in a non-polluting way.Though Tidal Technology is still in the baby phase, a number of companies are engaged in research in Tidal Technology and a large number of Tidal Stations are being built in Europe and USA.Here are a list of major Tidal Power Plants in the world.Expect this list to grow much bigger in the future as human interest in undersea technology grows as resources on land become fewer and more expensive.

1 ) Rance Tidal Tidal Power Plant is the world’s first and the most famous Tidal Power Plant in the world.The 240 MW power plant is located on Rance River,Brittany,France and was started almost 45 years ago.The Tidal Power Station is run by French state owned electricity giant EDF .

2) Annapolis Royal Tidal Power Plant is North America’s only power station and is located in Nova Scotia,Canada with a 20 MW power capacity.This Tidal Power Plant is built on the Bay of Frundy was built in 1984.The power plant operates on the same principle of tidal barrage and it has also faced issues of damage to river and marine life.

3) Jiangxia Tidal Tidal Power Plant is China’s only Tidal Power Station and has a capacity of 3.2 Mw.It is located in Zheijiang,China.

4) Kislaya Guba Tidal Power Plant is a pilot plant built in Russia with a capacity of 1.7 MW . The plant was compeleted recently in 2004 though construction was started way back in 1968.

5) Strangford Narrows SeaGen Tidal Power Plant is the first large scale Tidal Power Station which has been built using Tidal Turbine Technology.The Tidal Power Plant is located in Northern Ireland.This is a pilot plant built by Marine Current Turbines and it started in 1994 with a small 15 kw Tidal Turbine.

6) Uldolmok Tidal Power Plant is Asia’s 2nd largest Tidal Power Plant with a capacity of 1 MW.The South Korean plans to expand the capacity to 90 MW by 2013 and is located in Jindo County of South Korea.Note the South Korean government is the most aggressive government in building out Tidal Wave Energy Power Plants.

7) Aguçadoura Wave Farm in Portugal is the world’s first wave farm with a  capacity of 2.25.This Tidal Power Plant uses Pelamis Wave Energy Converters .The plant was supposed to be expanded to 21 MW before one of the promoters of this tidal power station Babcock and Brown went bankrupt.

Future Tidal Wave Plants

1) Incheon Tidal Wave Power Plant will be the biggest plant in the world when it is built.The Power Plant in Incheon,South Koreawill have a capacity of 1320 MW with 44 Turbines of 30 MW power capacity.The cost of the power plant will be around $3.4 billion and has a planned completion date of 2017.

2) Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Plant unlike other Power Plants is already being constructed and with a capacity of 254 MW will be the biggest Tidal Power Plant in the world when completed.The plants is located in South Korea.The cost of the plant is estimated to be between $300-400 million which compares quite favorably with other forms of energy .

3) Garorim Bay Tidal Power Plant like the above 2 plants is also to be located in South Korea and is being built by Korea Western Power Company.The capacity of the plant will be 520 MW

4) Penzhin Tidal Power Plant is proposed to be built in Russia.This power plant will be the largest power plant in the world if it is ever built with a gargantuan power capacity of 87000 MW.The Tidal Power Station will be built on Penzhin Bay on the border of Magadan Oblast.

5) Gulf of Kutch,Gujarat Tidal Power Plant – India does not have a Tidal Power Plant till now,however the western state of Gujarat is strongly pushing for building a power plant in the Gulf of Cambay.The Tidal Energy Plant will use the same principle used in Tidal Barrages.

6) Dalupiri Blue Energy,Philippines is like the Russian Power Plant still on the drawing stage and looks highly unlikely that it will be built.This Tidal Power Plant also has an ambitious capacity target of above 2 GW.

7) Cornwall Wave Hub is being planned with a first phase of 20 MW power capacity.This Tidal Power Plant will use Tidal Turbines and the second phase will lead to another 20 MW of capacity leading to 40 MW of overall electricity capacity.

8) Ocean Power is planning to build a small 150 KW Tidal Power Plant off Oregon in the United States.

Summary

Except for South Korea,not other government in the world is really pushing Tidal Wave Energy which needs massive government support at this stage of development.Note small pilot plants are being built here and there but  they will take a lot of time to become commercial in scale.The Massive Tidal Barrages being planned in Russia and Philippines will most probably never see the light of the day just like the Severn Tidal Barrage Project in England.