I thought this was interesting

[stickinthemud57]

Alaskan Inventor is 3D Printing Tidal Power Generators for Houseboats: Just Drop Anchor and Power On

McMullan's Chinook works in the same way as a wind turbine, but because water is much denser than air, it's actually more efficient

www.goodnewsnetwork.org

Two things come to mind:
1 - That's one hell of a 3D printer!
2 - Wonder if it would work while under way.

Suffice it to say there's no room for it on my boat, unless I want to sail alone.

 

[dLj]

There has been a lot of research done on turbines and other technologies to take advantage of tidal changes for generating power. The theoretical and actual power generated has a significant difference.

If you are interested in generating power while underway, look into Watt & Sea hydrogenerators. They are building good equipment is my understanding.

dj

 

[shemandr]

About every other town on the North Shore of LI has a "Mill Creek." The settlers would dam up the creek. They would let the tide come in an upper basin. And then when the tide turned to outgoing they would use the moving water to turn the mill stone.
I don't know why we've lost sight of this natural source of energy.

 

[dLj]

About every other town on the North Shore of LI has a "Mill Creek." The settlers would dam up the creek. They would let the tide come in an upper basin. And then when the tide turned to outgoing they would use the moving water to turn the mill stone.
I don't know why we've lost sight of this natural source of energy.

We haven't. There has been research done on power generation for decades with numerous methods to convert the currents from tides into power. Turbines and moving walls are two I've seen used. Two way turbines where they spin with the tide coming in and going out, tide ponds (as you've described), underwater turbines running on ocean currents.

Lots of hurdles to make them viable for producing enough energy to make the investment worthwhile.

dj

 

[stickinthemud57]

Scalability, cost, convenience, increasingly high demand, etc. Not many people are willing to make the sacrifices such solutions demand.