8. Wind turbines associated with tidal sites

The cost of offshore wind turbines is generally penalized by the length of the electrical connection and by installation and maintenance in open seas.

Siting wind turbines in a tidal basin and on the interlocking dike eliminates both these disadvantages, and the depth of the basins means that foundations can be laid economically in calm water. The absence of heavy swell during operation means, for example, that prefabricated reinforced concrete cylinders 15 m in diameter can simply be laid and backfilled. Installing wind turbines on half the surface area of a tidal basin produces around 2,500 hours of power per km ² , with an installed capacity of around 10 MW, i.e. 0.5 × 10 × 2,500 = 12,500 MWh or 12.5 GWh/km ² of tidal basin.

In GWh/km ^...