The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon will use tidal energy to power 155K homes for 120 years. By its sheer look, the power plant looks like a gorgeous get-away from outside. The unit, which is still under construction will save more than a quarter million barrels of oil per year, in a totally renewable way, without leaving a carbon footprint. There are other power plants using tidal waves to generate energy but Swansea project does it in a novel way!
How does it work?
A six-mile-long barrier wall will be constructed to hold a huge amount of water in an artificial “tidal lagoon”. This lagoon will source the water from seawater coming in during high tide. When there is no tide, the 4.5 square mile lagoon will hold massive amount of water. The height differential between the lagoon water and water outside will be as high as 27 feet. The immense pressure generated by potential difference will be routed through 26 turbines towards the sea.
If you want to gauge the amount of water that will be going through the turbines, it will be a volume that will fills up 100,000 Olympic swimming pools every day!
The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon will not only power homes but also supply water to its sports arena, aquaculture firm and adjacent gardens. The aquaculture firm is supposed to grow oysters, kelp and many other sea products. The sports arena will be one of the biggest in the world with sailing and cycling facilities.
The designers are planning for innovative sculptures which will be submerged during high tide and appear during low tide regime.
Swansea has been chosen as the desired location as it is having the highest tidal differences in the U.K. The idea was to maximize the amount of water which will be able to generate 420 gigawatt hours of power per year! Plan for the tidal lagoon has already been approved by the by the UK Energy Ministry. The construction is supposed to start sometime in 2017.
Two more tidal lagoon plants at Cardiff and Newport are being planned in near future.
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Author: Technology and Beyond
