In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (Act 4, Scene 3) Brutus says “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”. Not, apparently, in the genre of cheap, renewable energy tools. When I asked, at a recent sustainability conference, why tidal energy had not been developed, none of the panellists had a credible answer. “We just follow the Government” was one reply. Clearly not members of the Musk Innovation Stable.
To create electricity we have to convert a source of energy, transport it, store it, protect it from theft and vandals and activate it at the point of use. This implies certain things about the size and nature of the investment as well as about the source of the energy itself. It should be durable and self-sustaining so it needs to be in a medium that fosters these traits. It must be constant and minimally (or not at all) affected by climate vicissitudes.
The oceans seem to have been around for a while providing sea rises of about six feet twice a day. In some places the rise is nearly sixty feet, in other places, four times a day. But even at the lower average there is mighty power involved in a tidal rise and fall, both of which can produce electricity. Dozens of cog links in a floating platform will generate substantial amounts of it. There is enough coastline in the world to provide all we need.
I am not a nautical engineering designer but I can imagine myriads of ways the tide’s energy can be captured. My grandson, Tim Bittleston, however is. And his successful marine engineering works on the old Harland & Wolff site in Glasgow, Scotland is somewhere ideally suited to develop the Advanced Tidal Energy Capture (ATEC) scenario. I hope he and his father, my No 1 son Richard, the Vigesimal Vicar, will between them concoct the ideal tidal energy capture equipment.
Whether they do or not, it is much to be hoped that this constant, universal source of power will no longer be neglected.
This particular tide in the affairs of men should be taken at the flood, for sure.
Good morning
John Bittleston
Do you know how tidal energy could be harvested?
Please do tell us at [email protected].
25 October 2024
