While the wind may stop blowing and the sun might not always shine, one force of nature we can always depend on is that of the tides.
For the first time in North America, that energy is being harnessed for human use in Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy. The first phase of the project is set to generate two megawatts of power — enough to power 500 homes — but the end goal is 300 MW.
In the Bay of Fundy, the difference between high and low tide is about 56 feet. Approximately 115 billion tons of water flow in and out of the bay every tidal period. Two renewable energy developers, OpenHydro and Emera, decided to build turbines on the seafloor that could harness that power.
The trick is to build a structure that can withstand the tides over time. The first attempt in 2009 resulted in the turbine’s blades being destroyed by the force, but the latest model stand an impressive five stories and weighs 1,000 tons.
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