2. Specific features of tidal energy

The potential available along the world's coasts is highly variable, with the average tidal range varying from a few decimeters to 8 m. The projects studied generally applied to tidal ranges of more than 6 m, but the total corresponding potential is quite small, and the majority of the world's potential corresponds to tidal ranges of 3 to 5 m, spread over 20,000 km of coastline.

The most common tides worldwide are used as a basis for our analysis: they are semi-diurnal, lasting just over 12 hours. The amplitude is similar for the two tides of the same day, but this amplitude (the tidal range H ) varies greatly over 14 days: on some spring tide days, the tidal range exceeds the mean tidal range H _m by 30% (and sometimes 50%), and on some neap tide days, the tidal range is 35% (sometimes 50%) lower than H _...