Underwater Tidal Farms

        Underwater mechanics are the new generation’s energy producer, the new and improved Tidal Turbines (batteries not included).  This is an invention that could be producing the future’s power; this invention is so simple I bet you wish you could have invented it!  Only nine meters under the water of Manhattan’s East River stands the first actively used Tidal Turbine farm. This turbine farm includes six thirty-five kilowatt turbines that are able produce enough power for two companies or 4,000 homes. The turbines are placed on a rotating platform that faces the tide either coming in or going out. This farming is the equivalent to wind farming, just it underwater. "We don’t require that massive dam construction, we’re just using the natural flow of the stream," said Mark Stover, a vice president at Hydro Green Energy, the Houston-based company leading the project. "Its underwater wind power if you will, but we have 840 or 850 times the energy density of wind." The water in this world takes up seventy percent of the earth’s surface. Now because of new inventions and technologies we are able to control some of the usable power from the kinetic energy that is produced by the sun and the water. Another step forward in our journey to become green!

    Wow! That is an extreme over load of green technology! I had never known that there was such a thing as an underwater farm. I really like this type of green technology, because of so much power comes out of only 6 turbines, I wonder how much power we would receive if we had even more turbines. On the other hand does this affect the environment? When installing such a heavy machine does that affect the ecosystems in the water? When the turbine is sucking the water in, is it like a vacuumed? Does it suck up everything around it? Are the fish harmed in any way? There are so many questions to ask and so little information about this subject, I am craving to know more! I really hope that they are able to continue to build more of these turbines because they provide a reliable source of energy and they are predictable to use, unlike wind power. If we continue in the direction of renewable sources the prices of energy may go down and renewable sources provide less destruction to the earth. GO RENEWABLE ENERGY!

Sites Used:

Greenemeier, Larry. "It Came From the Sea--Renewable Energy, That Is: Scientific American." Science News, Articles and Information | Scientific American. Web. 18 Jan. 2011. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tidal-wave-renewable-energy>.