The Tidal Flows around the U.K.
coast have ebbed and flowed by day and by night for thousands of years and will
continue to do so for as long as we can imagine. They will be an integral part
of our lives long after our shale oil deposits have been fracked and consumed
and all the oil and gas reserves have been drained from the North Sea fields.
The United Kingdom controls over
772,000 square kilometres of seabed and the length of its coastline exceeds
11,000 kilometres. The associated Tidal Flows contain so much Kinetic Energy
that only a small fraction of it would be sufficient to satisfy this country’s
requirements (which are met at present by energy obtained from fossil fuels or
nuclear power). Furthermore, there could be enough energy remaining to supply
the needs of most of Europe too.
Consequently, there is a serious
need to ask why energy has to be imported in order to satisfy the nation’s
growing demand and why Tidal Stream energy lags so far behind in the nation’s
supposed shift to clean, environmentally-sound sources of energy - a change
that should be based on the full range of available renewables.
The simple answer is that, in the
U.K. government’s ranks, there is no-one with the vision of a James Dyson or a
Trevor Baylis. There are no engineers who can see beyond today’s academic page
and overcome the difficulties involved in moving forward steadily and
resolutely with a design or a project until it eventually reaches a successful
conclusion.
With over 150 Marine Energy
developers investigating the possibilities, the U.K. can justifiably be
considered a world leader in this industry - but the majority of those
developers are aiming at the wider world market rather than struggle to break
down the barriers created by the bureaucracy at home.
PAUL HALES
Director
Hales Water Turbines Ltd
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