Wave-produced. Not "tide-produced". The tides AFAIK are pretty reliable, but waves are fickle, like the wind. But, I'm a natural skeptic, too. Producing electrical energy from the tides is no simple matter. In this July 26, 2016 photo, a model of a wave energy test site at Kaneohe Bay on Oahu in Hawaii shows undersea cables that hold machinery in place. "Off the coast of Hawaii, a tall buoy bobs and sways in the water, using the rise and fall of the waves to generate electricity. The current travels through an undersea cable for a mile to a military base, where it feeds into Oahu's power grid — the first wave-produced electricity to go online in the U.S." Entire story: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/wave-produced-electricity-us-online-hawaii-42187915
We are also interested in the so called alternative energy or clean power supply. It is surprising to learn that we have 2 places here with windmills for producing electricity - one in the northern province of Ilocos Norte and another in the province of Rizal, just near Metro Manila. We also have some geothermal plants in some provinces. Solar panels are almost everywhere here but more of a novelty than a real supply of power since electricity from the supplier is way cheaper than solar power. I hope that man can harness the natural power around us so we can forget the fossil fuel which ruined the earth's atmosphere.
I guess everyone is looking for a new way to produce clean and renewable energy but one that I have really been looking at hard the past couple of weeks is the geothermal aspect. Three or four years ago, Yvonne was pouring over a potential earth killer, the Yellowstone caldera, and I voiced an opinion consisting of the usage of the energy beneath the earth's crust to bleed off a lot of the pressure. Granted, the geysers do a pretty good job but I thought at the time that if we harnessed the steam and turned it into energy then in essence we would be doing two things: help prevent a massive volcanic explosion and have something which produces electricity. Lately, whilst reliving that moment in time, I discovered that there are geothermal plants springing up all over the place and producing enough to supply millions of homes with electricity. Iceland, for example, started it's experimentation some years ago and now, nearly 25% of the country's energy needs are being met via geothermal energy. Their goal is to become so geothermally energy efficient that they are saying that they'll be able to provide a large portion of Europe with electricity within a relatively short period of time. Just to get a better grasp of what the media is NOT talking about, here's a small link. Maybe, just maybe we can get rid of all the windmill farms and go thermal. https://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy...wable-energy/how-geothermal-energy-works.html Edit: There is no intention of hijacking the thread but Corie mentioned geothermal so I simply ran with that instead of starting a new thread.