We were excited to read that the world’s largest tidal turbine ever built was unveiled in Scotland last week.  This twin rotor turbine (Atlantis Resources Corporation) will be installed at the bottom of the North Sea at Orkney, Scotland, where experts predict that the strong tides and powerful blades will produce enough energy to power 1,000 homes! Working much like a windmill or wind turbine, the rotor will rotate in response to the daily ebb and flow of the tide, spinning almost constantly to generate power for the European Marine Energy Center.

This turbine is a huge step forward for tidal energy, as it’s massive (59-foot diameter and 1,300 tonnes!), and represents the first in a set of hundreds that are planned for installation in Scotland over the coming years.

Worried about the potential impact on the sea floor and surrounding wildlife?  It’s believed that the impact will be minimal, as the blades rotate quite slowly and will need little maintenance on the sea floor.  In a world where all alternative energy sources have their pros and cons, the turbines seem a near ideal solution for powering (eventually) hundreds of thousands of homes in the area.

Can you imagine if such a solution was implemented along the US coasts, where tidal forces are strong and constant?  We salute the engineers and innovators who are making it possible to harness natural energy for homes.

Read more on the new turbines here.

Tags: alternative energy, tidal energy

This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 1:21 pm and is filed under News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.