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That is why we have a diversity of wind farms! Wind turbines scale much more easily than wave/tidal, both the size of the turbines themselves (much larger than

That is why we have a diversity of wind farms! Wind turbines scale much more easily than wave/tidal, both the size of the turbines themselves (much larger than a wave/tidal system could ever be) and where they can be located around the UK coast. A diversity of renewable energy sources is sensible (nuclear, wind, biofuel etc), but wave and tidal are difficult to scale and have failed to deliver.

Quarrelsome 5y ago
doesn't mean they will always fail to deliver.
- Guthur 5y ago
  I think that unless you drastically change the parameters of the implementation then yes it does mean it will always fail.
  - Quarrelsome 5y ago
    you're assuming the rate of improvement is constant? I feel like progress is a process that staggers. There may well be a future where tidal provides better or more cost effective yields.
    - 542354234235 5y ago
      > There may well be a future where tidal provides better or more cost effective yields. Based on what? With solar, we understood it was chemical science that would improve it. With wind, it was blade design, materials weight and durability, and generator technology. For tidal, what would improve that wouldn’t also improve wind? Improvements in durability, turbine, or generator tech would almost certainly also improve wind. Salt water will always be harder on equipment than air. Tidal forces are strong on large scales but on footprints similar to wind turbines, we aren’t talking about orders of magnitude more potential energy.
ClumsyPilot 5y ago
Wind routinely rises fall on the scale of entirety of UK, having multiple windfarms around the country doesn't seem to help that much.
- TheManInThePub 5y ago
  As my comment clearly said; add other renewables into the mix, but not wave/tidal. These technologies are a dead end and do not scale.
  - toecutter 5y ago
    Why don't they scale? is there not enough ocean in the world or something?

Quarrelsome 5y ago

doesn't mean they will always fail to deliver.

Guthur 5y ago
I think that unless you drastically change the parameters of the implementation then yes it does mean it will always fail.
- Quarrelsome 5y ago
  you're assuming the rate of improvement is constant? I feel like progress is a process that staggers. There may well be a future where tidal provides better or more cost effective yields.
  - 542354234235 5y ago
    > There may well be a future where tidal provides better or more cost effective yields. Based on what? With solar, we understood it was chemical science that would improve it. With wind, it was blade design, materials weight and durability, and generator technology. For tidal, what would improve that wouldn’t also improve wind? Improvements in durability, turbine, or generator tech would almost certainly also improve wind. Salt water will always be harder on equipment than air. Tidal forces are strong on large scales but on footprints similar to wind turbines, we aren’t talking about orders of magnitude more potential energy.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago

Wind routinely rises fall on the scale of entirety of UK, having multiple windfarms around the country doesn't seem to help that much.

TheManInThePub 5y ago
As my comment clearly said; add other renewables into the mix, but not wave/tidal. These technologies are a dead end and do not scale.
- toecutter 5y ago
  Why don't they scale? is there not enough ocean in the world or something?