Environmental Impact of Electricity Generation - Tidal Power

Tidal Power

Main article: Tidal power

In regions such as the Bay of Fundy with very large tidal swings, tidal power plants can be built to extract electrical power from the tidal motion.

Tidal power is also renewable, in the sense that it will continue for as long as the Moon orbits the Earth. However, it has environmental problems similar to those of hydroelectric power. A tidal power plant usually requires a large dam, which can endanger ecosystems by restricting the motion of marine animals. Perhaps more seriously, a tidal power plant reduces or increases the tidal swing, which can severely disrupt ecosystems which depend on being periodically covered by water; resulting changes in fisheries or shellfish beds may result in adverse economic effects. Certain proposed tidal power plants in the Bay of Fundy would increase the tidal swing by an estimated 50 cm as far south as the coast of Maine (where the tidal swing is not particularly large now).

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