Introduction
It is a common knowledge to us all that almost, if not, all countries around the globe are having tremendous problems on energy sources, particularly because of the fast depletion of oil sources and continuous environmental degradation. This has serve as a wake up call for lots of researchers and scientist to move an extra effort and devote more of their time in looking for alternative ways or sources in the pursuit of helping each country to alleviate from the energy crisis that we are now having.
There are several alternative sources that have been studied, and are still under further analysis. Among these are solar energy, nuclear energy, and wind energy. All of these have their uses, advantages and disadvantages. The use of these possible alternative energy sources have been analyzed and looked upon in order to find out whether or not if there really is a possibility that we humans, could lessen our dependency on oil and use these alternatives instead.
And aside from the above-stated alternative source of energy, there is one more possible energy source that is being studied… and this is the tidal energy. This paper will divulge information about tidal energy as this aims to find out the strengths and weaknesses of this energy source when used greatly by humans.
Tidal Energy – What is it?
Tidal energy is a newly established alternative source of energy which is largely from lunar gravitation (Canadian Encyclopedia, 2008). This form of energy was generated from the idea of the gravitational forces coming from the moon, the sun and the earth which in turns creates movement such as the rising and lowering of water levels thereby creating tidal waves (Gorlov, 2001).
The energy that is created by these tidal waves is mainly composed of two contributing sources of energy – the potential energy and the kinetic energy. Potential energy – as it is known to be the ‘stored energy’ is generated from the work done through the lifting of the mass of water above the ocean surface. Meanwhile, the kinetic or the action energy is the energy of the water in its capacity to do work by virtue of its velocity. Thus, the total tidal energy is equivalent to its potential and kinetic energy when combined (Gorlov, 2001).
As tidal energy comes from the bodies of water it cannot be helped but to be compared with those from the river dams. It should be noted that to generally acquire or initiate tidal power, there is a need for gigantic structures and this should be built in areas where saltwater is abundant. It is of course hard to build such structures in saltwater environment with strong waves and/or rigors coming from time to time (Canadian Encyclopedia, 2008). Nevertheless, to built tidal power plants, the conventional structures of building it are still being followed, which follow the three structural and mechanical elements such as (Gorlov, 2001):
- a water dam across the flow, which creates the artificial water basin and builds up a water head for operation of hydraulic turbines
- several turbines coupled with electric generators which should be installed at the lowest point of the dam
- hydraulic gates with in the dam to control the water flow in and out of the water basin behind the dam.
Indeed, to create one tidal energy source may cost huge amount of money. However, in the most recent time, scientist have introduced a new idea which would help in extracting tidal energy without the need for gigantic or massive dams and this is through the use of unconventional turbines which is designed to extract kinetic energy from a free-flowing and unconstrained tidal waves without any dams.
Tidal Energy – its Strengths and weaknesses
As clearly stated above there are numerous type of alternative source of energy that has been designed are already in use in most developed countries nowadays. As a strong point for this tidal energy, it should be noted that this is one of the newest that is being studied and designed by scientists and engineers. The energy that can be derived from tidal waves is still a new thing and has not yet been exploited. Therefore, we humans can still maximize its use and there’s still a great room for improvement and further development.
However, as its weak point, to extract energy from tidal waves will cost a huge sum of money. It even requires clean hydrogen fuel. At present most hydrogen is produced from natural gases and fossil fuels, which emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and harm the global ecosystem (Gorlov, 2001).
From this point of view, another strong point can be derived from using tidal energy. Production of hydrogen by water electrolysis using tidal energy is one of the best ways to develop clean hydrogen fuel by a clean method. Thus, tidal energy can be used in the future to help develop a new era of clean industries, for example, to clean up the automotive industry, as well as other energy-consuming areas of human activity (Gorlov, 2001).
Tidal Energy in Comparison to other Energy Source
As there is a big possibility that tidal energy will be tremendously used now and in the future, it is then worth comparing this energy source to other existing and widely used alternative energy source like the solar energy, nuclear energy, wind energy and geothermal energy.
Solar energy is the radiant energy produced in the sun as a result of nuclear fusion reactions. It is transmitted to the earth through space in quanta of energy called photons, which interact with the earth’s atmosphere and surface. The use of sun’s energy has been proven to provide specific benefits to people. One of its advantages is its accessibility to people. Solar energy is, and will always be present to our everyday life. And it is for free, there is no need for fuel to run and it and it and produces no waste or pollution. Moreover, in sunny countries, solar power can be used where there is no easy way to get electricity to a remote place. it is also very handy particularly for low-power uses such as solar powered garden lights and battery chargers. On the other side, there are some minor disadvantages on using the solar energy. First of which is the fact that it cannot be used at night. Statistics also revealed that it could be very expensive to build solar power stations. Solar cells cost a great deal compared to the amount of electricity they’ll produce in their lifetime. Solar energy may also end up being unreliable to some people unless they are from areas with very sunny climate. In the United Kingdom, solar power isn’t much use except for low-power applications, as there is a need for larger areas of solar panels to get a decent amount of power.
Nuclear energy is the term we used to refer to the energy consumed or produced in modifying the composition of the atomic nucleus. Also nuclear energy powers electricity-generating plants in countries throughout the world. It is seen by many as the source of inexpensive, clean power; but, because of the hazardous radiation emitted in producing that power and the radioactivity of the materials used, others feel that it may not be a viable energy alternative to the use of fossil fuels or solar energy. The energy of any system, whether physical, chemical, or nuclear, is manifested by the system’s ability to do work or to release heat or radiation. The total energy in a system is always conserved, but it can be transferred to another system or changed in form.
Although it is stated above that nuclear energy does not result to a high volume of wastes, it is very, very dangerous. In fact, it must be sealed up and buried for many years to allow the radioactivity to die away. Nuclear power is reliable, but a lot of money has to be spent on safety – if it does go wrong, a nuclear accident can be a major disaster. Lastly, unlike any other alternative sources of energy, nuclear energy, especially that from Uranium is not renewable. Once we’ve dug up and consumed all the Earth’s uranium, there isn’t any more.
Wind power is the kinetic energy of wind, or the extraction of this energy by wind turbines. This form of energy is the energy present in the flow of air around the earth. The wind is driven by the temperature and pressure differences in the atmosphere arising from heating of the earth by the sun and it is further guided by topography. wind energy, like solar energy is free, in fact wind farms need no fuel. This form of energy produces no waste nor greenhouse gases. Moreover, the land beneath can usually still be used for farming. This energy source is also renewable. Lastly, this form of energy is a good means of supplying energy to remote areas. On the other hand, like to sun’s energy, the wind is not always predictable, there are certain days when there very low or no wind. Suitable areas for wind farms are often near the coast, where land is expensive.
Geothermal power is electricity generated by utilizing naturally occurring geological heat sources. It is a form of renewable energy. This type of ‘heat’ energy comes from the red hot inner ‘core’ of our planet “Earth”. Geothermal energy does not produce any pollution. Needless to say, it does not contribute to the greenhouse effect. Furthermore, the power stations do not take up much room, so there is not much impact on the environment. There is no fuel nor oils required to run it. Once you’ve built a geothermal power station, the energy is almost free. It may need a little energy to run a pump, but this can be taken from the energy being generated. The only problem in this form of energy is that there are not many places where you can build a geothermal power station. To successfully build it, there is a need for hot rocks of a suitable type, at a depth where one can drill down to them. Hazardous gases and minerals may come up from underground, and can be difficult to safely dispose. Also, there are some instances wherein a geothermal site may “run out of steam”, perhaps for decades.
Conclusion
Indeed, there are various alternative sources of energy – alternatives that we have discussed above. All these alternatives have their own specific uses, advantages and disadvantages. It may be true that not all can derive or adapt all of these alternative energy sources in their own area, because it is a fact that each energy source requires specific materials or tools or land component that may not be present in all areas. But there is one thing is for sure, whatever the country or the area is, there is surely one or several forms of alternative sources of energy that can be adapted which will bring extreme benefits to the people and to the economy as well.
Tides can really play a very important role in the formation of global climate as well as the ecosystems for ocean habitants. At the same time, as what has been gathered from various reference materials, tides are now known and proven as a potential source of clean and renewable energy for the present and future human use. Diminishing oil reserves, the emission of greenhouse gases by burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels, as well as the accretion of nuclear waste from nuclear reactors will inevitably force people to replace most of our traditional energy sources with renewable energy in the future. Tidal energy is one of the best candidates for this.
References
Canadian Encyclopedia. 2008. “Tidal Energy.”
“Geothermal Power”. (2005).
“Nucelear Power”. (2005).
Gorlov, A. M. 2001. Tidal Energy. Academic Press. Northeastern University, Boston Massachusetts, USA.