Restless Energy
physical and economic prospects of tapping the
‘tide5 to
provide electricity
ç markets in both Canada and the United
States. The Canadian investigation is only one in a
centred onlcapturing the vast amounts of energy which run Çto waste
with the:ebb and ow of thetidesin this long narrôw bay on the
eastern
of North America; As early as 1920; the US.
Government considered a plan for:;a,tidälfpower station at PasSa—
maquoddy Bay, an oShoot from‘ the «Bay of Fundy.
came to nothing although
'revived itat the time
of his ‘New Deal’ policy and “the work reached ;‘a—stage of Ïemploying
as many as 5,ooo‘men before beingabandoned.
!
1920 seems to haVe been agoo,dyear Ëfortidal power pr0pos’als;
schemes were suggeSted
simultaneously for the Severn
Estuary in England,
in France,and, of
course, for Passamaquoddy
All theSeÏweredüly cbhsideredby
the governments of the day and turned dbüm,àlthough they have
been cropping up fromitime to
ever since;…a Only theÆrench
managed to sustain a :proposal for
station long'enough
to
it built. ‘As;a result, General de
proudly inauguræted
the rst tidal poWer:statioh in the «W0rld in Novemberviî966. ÎIt had
been planned bya Frenchengineer :Robert2Gibrat in:19421during
the German occupation.Îi'» .
g…f.…“
”
The French poWef station,which straddles the Rance…Estuaryin
north—west France, providing avdire0t road link between Dinard and
St Malo, is
produce 240
of
enough for a city of abOut 5 Oo,ooopeople;ï Receiving the direct force
j of the great Atlantic tidal‘ wave,
enjoÿSremarkably,«regular
"
titles.“ At the same time,
of the
peninsulaÿto ‘
the north and the funnelling effect of the estuaryxmouth givesaftidal"
…rangee during Spring‘î tides‘ of 42 feet. 5At the height ofthè_
ow, w‘aterœomes rus”hing—finto the estuary
;neayïfour
million gallons per
Even so, the… power?
only
proportion of
to ow
,:Englis'h
«:älmost
the worldîè
megaWatts.
:Infàct,;asa resùltao£this
being
the
of a
second”ëevÏe”ry;lu“mdred
very slowly
farthenawaÿ-.
c
’
”
:
‘u
càïTh€*ÏkCÿ4ÏÔ tidal p0wer*is
tide, for ”it is thiswlcli