. Funding has just been secured to break ground on the World’s largest ocean current-driven power plant on the shores of "Scotland". The plant is expected to supply the electrical needs of 175,000 homes once completed, with the initial delivery of electricity expected by 2016. Landscape . The project will be built in the Pentland Firth in "Scotland". . The first phase of the project will include 61 tidal turbines which will supply Scotland with enough power for 42,000 families. Eventually there could be as many as 269 water turbines installed on the array, creating 398 megawatts of electricity. $83 million has been raised to start the first phase of the power plant. . "Scotland" has a goal of being completely off of fossil fuels by 2020, and this projects puts them on the path to meet that ambitious target. . Tidal energy works in a very similar manner to wind energy; in fact, the turbines look very similar. According MeyGen, the builder of the plant. . “Sea water is 832 times denser than air and so a 5 knot ocean current has more kinetic energy than a 220 MPH wind. Therefore ocean currents have a very high energy density and a smaller device is required to harness tidal current energy than to harness wind energy. . Tidal current energy takes the kinetic energy available in currents and converts it into electricity. As oceans cover over 70% of Planet Earth’s surface, ocean energy (including wave power, tidal current power and ocean thermal energy conversion) represents a vast source of energy, estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000 TWh per year, enough energy to continuously light between 2 and 4 billion 11W low-energy light bulbs. . Due to the slower moving blades in water current-powered turbines, it is less likely that they will cause harm to sea life or the surrounding ecosystem. Tidal turbines are much less disruptive to the flow of water than other types of tidal power such as ‘barrages’, which actually trap and release rising tide water. * This is information is for anyone that wishes to challenge our “fair use” of copyrighted material. . DMCA . The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into law by President Clinton on October 28, 1998. The legislation implements two 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties: the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonographs Treaty. The DMCA also addresses a number of other significant copyright-related issues. . If you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such, and you believe that content residing on, or accessible through this website infringes a copyright and falls outside the boundaries of “Fair Use”, please send a notice of infringement by contacting us: . [ wangywagnols@gmail.com ] . We will respond and take necessary action immediately. . If notice is given of an alleged copyright violation we will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material(s) in question. . All 3rd party material posted on this site is copyright the respective owners / authors. [ wangywagnols@gmail.com ] makes no claim of copyright on such material. *

• published: 17 Sep 2014
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