4. Current use of tidal turbines

Wind turbines have been a great success, as wind speeds are sufficient at many sites to justify competitive wind turbines of 1 to 5 MW on land, and 2 to 10 MW at sea. This success has encouraged the development of offshore energy production with similar equipment (tidal turbines), using ocean currents where they are strongest, i.e. near areas of high tidal range.

The power supplied by a tidal turbine is roughly equal (in kW) to 0.2 sV ³ , where s (m ² ) is the surface area of the turbines and V (m/s) is the current speed. Turbine diameters can range from 10 to 20 m.