Tidal Power & The Gulf of Maine

Life; fragile and indestructible, eradicable and perseverant, it all began within the world’s oceans. Today in 2010, the ocean is viewed as a means of monetary value, no longer respected for allocating life but sustaining economies. Plundered and exploited for resources; it is only natural that when the entire human civilization faces an energy crisis, we turn to “mother ocean” to assuage our consumption and provide us with a feasible solution; tidal power.

The Gulf of Maine has the potential to provide the energy we so desperately desire but is this necessity for energy, fed by a blind need for consumption or the actual application of green energy, in the best interest for the Gulf of Maine itself, rather than the power grids of the United States.

The Gulf of Maine consists of 36,000 square miles of ocean and includes 7,500 miles of coastline, from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia. The Gulf is internationally renowned for its high bioproductivity, fishing industry, and the Bay of Fundy, which produces the highest tidal ranges in the world, aka the generator for a tidal industry.

Tidal power in The Bay of Fundy, located between Canada and the United States, is considered the region most economically feasible for tidal power production in the western hemisphere, due to its tidal range. The Bay of Fundy has the largest tides in the world, up to 16 meters, 53 feet, during a spring tide; this is due to the shape of the bay itself, the bay gets progressively narrower allowing for the extreme tides. The potential energy output of a tidally-driven facility in this area is projected at 17 billion Kilowatt hours with the capacity of 6 million Kilowatts, in terms of usage; this is roughly 22% of New England's energy consumption for 1978.

Tidal power is renewable and available locally; creating jobs and does not produce any green house gases or harmful environmental byproducts, such as CO2, which is emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, otherwise known as oil & coal, the basis for almost all energy produced.

Tidal power works through the use of a sluice, a floodgate or water channel, which allows the tide to flow into the tidal basin. The sluice is part of a tidal barrage, a dam or wall that crosses the opening of a tidal basin, such as the Bay of Fundy. The sluice is then closed and the sea level drops. Traditional hydropower technologies can then be used to generate electricity from the elevated water in the basin. The opening and closing of the sluice, sends water over the turbines, make them spin; creating electricity that will be carried to shore via underwater cables, and then used the power consumer goods.

The main benefit “no pollutants” says University of Maine’s David Townsend, Professor of Ocean Science. “It’s dumb not to take the tidal current, should we, I don’t know, when are we taking too much?

The Gulf of Maine has been the back bone of Maine’s local and commercial fishing industries for generations, providing in excess of millions of dollars to the state, via the direct harvesting and retail of fish and through the large amount of tourism that is partially generated by the industry. But Maine’s fishing industry has been in a state of slow decline for the past decade, overfishing and regulations have crippled the industry to its core.

(Sea Turtle caught in a trawl net)

Once Atlantic Cod and Halibut were the central fisheries on Georges Bank, overtime bottom trawlers became more efficient, catching a staggering amount of fish in a single day. Some accounts claim that with the invention of ocean trawlers, a single vessel could catch in one hour, what the traditional methods could catch in an entire season. Species in the bank flip-flop due to this kind of large scale fishing, large numbers of fish are removed in a relatively short period of time, allowing more fish to be harvested, causing species fluctuations on the bank. Major species fluctuations can alter entire marine ecosystems, changing the bioproductivity of a region. Thus a fishery could collapse, as has happened in the Gulf before.

Professor Townsend says, this is an example of what can happen when our natural resources are not managed, when we do in fact, take too much. He says that he is not so much concerned with the introduction of a tidal power facility, as he is with fishery management.

But there just so happens to be a downfall, tidal power effects the environment in extreme and unnatural ways. A result of a tidal barrage site is water stratification, which hinders the production of plankton, the key to life in the ocean as it is the base of the marine food chain. But this would only occur in the area between the shore and the facility. Tide pool communities could be affected, a microcosm of species could starve. Also birds that feed on the mud flats would have nowhere to feed.

Other benefits include protecting the coast against high powered storms, as the barrage is essentially a seawall, or the barrage itself could be constructed as a bridge, this technique has been used in Britain.

The bottom line is can we afford such extreme consequences that could potentially damage areas of productivity in the Gulf of Maine, one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world. Scientist readily admit, they themselves do not know the entire extent of the affects that would occur.

Professor Townsend states that the affects of tidal power would almost be immediate. The facilities would begin generating power as soon as they were installed and in regards to the unknown effects, within a year they could be determined. The race is on; Canada is currently working on developing a tidal power facility in the Bay of Fundy, in the Canadian region of the bay. Which leads to another question, what would happen if Maine does not move forward with a tidal facility but Canada does, will we inherit their side effects? As always, time will tell.