On November 17, 2005, Dr. Ian Bryden, one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of wave and tidal energy, lectured an EESI audience at the University of Colorado School of Law. The event was sponsored by CEES and the British Consulate, Denver. For more information please see the news article below, published in the Boulder Daily Camera on November 18, 2005.
Boulder Daily Camera
Friday, November 18, 2005
U.K. tech advisor sees tidal energy in pipeline
By Julianne Bentley
For the Boulder Daily Camera
A half-continent from the nearest ocean, many in Boulder view tidal currents and waves as vacation backdrops, not sources brimming with renewable energy.
Though Boulder will never be an ocean-energy hub, power from the seas could be an important part of the future U.S. energy portfolio, said Ian Bryden, an advisor to Britain's House of Commons Science and Technology Committee.
Bryden, director of the Center for Research in Energy and the Environment at Robert Gordon University in Scotland, spoke Thursday at the University of Colorado's School of Law about how Britain is harnessing this underplayed resource.
The center has taken leaps in developing technology to capture the energy of tidal currents in Britain.
"It is a maritime country," Bryden said. "The energy potential is quite substantial."
Bryden said seizing tidal power with turbines has the potential to handle 6 percent of the United Kingdom's energy consumption.
"In principle, we should be able to harness large amounts of energy with relatively small development," Bryden said.
The United States--still in the experimentation phase and testing turbine equipment--is far behind Britain in taking advantage of the magnificent power in ocean currents.
"There's no metal in the water," Bryden said of the lack of equipment along the U.S. shorelines.
Tidal currents, although not constant, are very predictable, Bryden said. By calculating the cycle changes of the tides, the average energy flux of regions can be determined. Yell Sound, off the northern coast of Scotland, was one of the first "hot spots" for harnessing tidal activity, he said.
"I'm very fond of this channel--it's where it all began," said Bryden, who discovered that the currents through the sound were 10 to 20 times what would be expected from wind power.
According to energy flux calculations in the wide channel, the water flow of 6.5 feet per second would be enough to fulfill the electricity demand of Edinburgh, he said.
Bryden said hot spots are widespread, but not universal. There are hot spots all over the world, with a huge band spanning New Zealand, Southeast Asia and into Alaska. While there is not an abundance of hot spots along the U.S. coasts, there is one substantial hot spot near Seattle and along Vancouver, he said.
The cost of the energy is still too pricey to make it commercially viable at $1.15 per kilowatt-hour; by comparison, Xcel charges 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity in Colorado. Byrden said it will take 5 years before the price is low enough to be economical, hopefully at half its current cost.
Because the use of turbines slows the water flow, a turbine could only take 20 percent to 25 percent of the total kinetic energy without a noticeable impact on the environment, Byrden said.
Tidal and wave energy has the potential to become a huge contributor to meet global energy demand, said Kevin Doran, a research fellow for the Energy and Environmental Security Initiative, which invited Bryden to speak at CU.
"Our potential for tidal isn't as great as others, but it's there," Doran said. "Just one renewable energy can't meet demand. We need them all."
