The tidal range energy potential of the West Coast of the United Kingdom

Appraising the extractable tidal energy resource of the UK's western coastal waters

“…Nevertheless, the work confirmed the scale of resource predicted by the DoEn in the 1980s for ebb-only power generation. These 1 × DoEn arrangements were also confirmed as generally leading to the lowest cost of energy produced [1,9]. In the zero-dimensional studies, different turbine sizes, generator ratings and sluice capacities were investigated, and the 'best' options are shown in table 1.…”

“…The latter exercise has included the four major northwest estuary barrages plus the (Cardiff-Weston) alignment on the Severn Estuary [1,9]. In the following discussion, a 'DoEn' (or 1 × DoEn) barrage installation is taken as one with installed turbine capacity (and complementary sluicing) consistent with the outcomes of the UK Department of Energy's 1980s studies [2,[4][5][6], with the characteristics of extracting about half of the available energy during ebb generation.…”

“…Zero-dimensional modelling was initially used to investigate the different possible operating modes for tidal barrages and lagoons, exploring turbine performance at different barrage sites independently [1,8,9].…”

“…The tidal energy potential of the northwest of England was explored by the authors as part of the Northwest Regional Development Agency-funded 2006-8 Joule study, and some of the results of this study were presented by Burrows and colleagues [8,9] and Wolf et al [7]. Section 2 presents the methodology used to model tidal energy extraction together with a summary of the Joule study results, and §3 presents new model results exploring conjunctive barrage operation and implementation of large-scale tidal stream arrays.…”

Comparison of 0-D, 1-D and 2-D model capabilities for tidal range energy resource assessments

“…turbines and sluice gates), it is possible to simulate the performance of a tidal range structure [11], [12]. The plant operation can be modelled using a water level time series representing the transient downstream water elevations at the site location [3], [13], [14]. In the classical study of [9], it was assumed that (i) the flow through the turbines is at a constant flow rate Q and that (ii) power generation starts and stops at the same prescribed minimum head h min .…”