statistics on tidal energy

statistics on tidal energy are, as yet, reasonably thin on the ground - in the race to develop viable means of renewable energy sources, tidal energy technologies have been somewhat left in the starting blocks by more popular approaches, such as wind power. Much of this is down to a perceived higher capital cost involved in getting into a position to harness tidal energy, thus resulting in higher per-unit costs for generation. As the commercial world is often short-term results driven, the investment into tidal research has, perhaps not been all it could have to date.

However, things are starting to move and the gap between tidal energy production costs and those of its competitors is narrowing rapidly. By 2020, even the more expensive form of tidal energy production - tidal stream should be within 50% of the cheapest rival - onshore wind energy. At the time of writing, it's about 4 times as expensive.

However, in the longer term, the statistics on tidal energy look set to follow those of other renewables, in that both use of and reliance on it will increase significantly. Of the differing types of tidal energy:

wave and tidal stream energy

tidal lagoon energy

It's tidal lagoon energy that presents the most potential for commercial exploitation, despite the fact that there is no tidal lagoon energy being generated commercially at the time of writing, though even this is still a good bit more expensive than alternative renewable generation means. Most research looks towards 202 and so, here are some statistics based around that year below:

projected statistics on tidal energy

The UK government believe that 3% of electricity supply could be generated by tidal energy means by 2020.

Globally, there's believed to be about 120mW of installed tidal energy capacity at the time of writing. The UK is believed to account for about ½ of that.

By 2020, there's expected to be close to 2.5gW of installed global capacity, the UK still accounting for about half of that capacity

tidal energy in the news

Israel's First Tidal Power Plant Completed In Jaffa - Green Prophet (blog)
1 Aug 2010 at 6:22am
Green Prophet (blog)Israel's First Tidal Power Plant Completed In JaffaGreen Prophet (blog)Now SDE Energy builds tidal energy plant in Jaffa, which should expand to 50 MW. The ancient port city of Jaffa, today a part of Tel Aviv, has added one ...

Cash crisis is a threat to wind target says PricewaterhouseCoopers - Daily Mail
26 Jul 2010 at 10:43am
Telegraph.co.ukCash crisis is a threat to wind target says PricewaterhouseCoopersDaily MailThe grant, which is expected to be the first in a series of investments by the Welsh Assembly, will be made to Cardiffbased Tidal Energy. ...Huhne touts UK energy self-sufficiencyWindpower Monthly (subscription)More cheap wind turbines are key to power strategy, says HuhneHerald ScotlandAre we ready to tr...

Maine, Nova Scotia to team up on offshore energy - BusinessWeek
13 Jul 2010 at 5:30pm
DigitalJournal.comMaine, Nova Scotia to team up on offshore energyBusinessWeekThe two leaders said they want to investigate areas they can work together to expand use of offshore wind and tidal energy technology and to team up on ...Maine and Nova Scotia team up for offshore wind and tidal energyExaminer.comMaine, Nova Scotia Agree to Share Information on Ocean Energy DevelopmentFreepress Onlin...

Nine UK wave energy companies receive further financial boost from government - Renewable Energy Magazine (press release)
30 Jul 2010 at 9:56am
Nine UK wave energy companies receive further financial boost from governmentRenewable Energy Magazine (press release)The UK is well placed to exploit wave and tidal stream energy resources with all of the coast line that we have, and it is expected this kind of technology ...and more »

Queen's University set to design fully submerged deepwater turbine - Irish Times
30 Jul 2010 at 1:07am
Queen's University set to design fully submerged deepwater turbineIrish TimesBristol company Marine Current Turbines (MCT), which has been running a tidal energy project in Strangford Lough, Co Down, has secured funding with project ...Belfast Uni Gets Funding for Tide TurbinesAfloatall 3 news articles »

Scottish wind energy plans would create 5000 jobs - Reuters Africa
27 Jul 2010 at 4:22pm
Scotland CourierScottish wind energy plans would create 5000 jobsReuters AfricaThe report also looked at the infrastructure needed to support wave and tidal energy projects. Scotland's waters are estimated to have as much as a quarter ...Offshore industry to come with 5000 'green' jobsScotland CourierScottish government to establish three offshore wind clustersRechargeall 14 news articles »