Click, que sera, seraI'd heard rumors this Thing existed; it was right off the highway I cruised from Halifax to Yarmouth today. Next trip to Nova Scotia, I'll make a point of seeing it. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick claim to have the world's biggest tide differentials (water height difference between High and Low), and near the coast, some narrow rivers have a phenomenon called the Tidal Bore -- once a day the river reverses direction, and rowboats/canoes/kayaks can get a free ride several miles Upstream. Neat trick.
Some claim the tides at Inchon, in Korea (site of a famous military landing invasion during the Korean War), rival the tides of the Bay of Fundy.
Well, if ever North America is going to get its ass in gear to use Tidal Power to generate electricity, this is the time and the Bay of Fundy is the place. There's no such thing as a Free Lunch, and environmentalists don't like the disruption in coastal ecologies they believe damming tides causes.
Alternative Options include Oil, Coal, and Plutonium (half-life on the order of 100,000 years). Where's the fun in getting electric power without superpower wars and ionizng radiation catastrophes? Where's the fun in that? Do you want to live forever while watching the Beijing Olympics on your new hi-def giant screen?
If you are a regular reader of Vleeptron, you will have already suspected that Little Bobby has a very unhealthy lust for Weird Machines.
PizzaQ: There's a naughty little secret associated with the promise of electricity generated by Wind Power. For 3 slices, what's the Down Side of electric wind turbines?
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Wikipedia
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The Annapolis Royal Generating Station is an 18-MegaWatt tidal power plant located on the Annapolis River immediately upstream from the town of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the only tidal generating station in North America.
{There's one other I know about at the mouth of a river in France.]
The generating station harnesses the tidal difference created by the large tides in the Annapolis Basin, a sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy. Opened in 1984, the Annapolis Royal Generating Station was constructed by Nova Scotia Power Corporation, which was at the time a provincial government Crown corporation that was frequently used to socially benefit various areas in the province.
Tidal harnesses to generate electricity had been under discussion for the Bay of Fundy and its various sub-basins for several decades. The decision to build the Annapolis Royal facility was partly prompted by the promise of federal funding for this alternative energy project, as well as the provincial Department of Transportation's requirement to replace an aging steel truss bridge over the river between Annapolis Royal and Granville Ferry.
The resulting rock-filled dam carries Trunk 1 across the river, as well as housing the power house and sluice gates.
The project has had mixed results. While effectively generating electricity, the dam across the river restricting water flow (to allow the tidal difference to accumulate every 6 hours) has resulted in increased river bank erosion on both the upstream and downstream sides.
The dam has also trapped marine life, including a case in August, 2004 when a mature Humpback whale swam through the open sluice gate at slack tide, ending up trapped for several days in the upper part of the river before eventually finding its way out to the Annapolis Basin (it was nicknamed "Sluice").
The body of an immature Humpback whale was discovered in spring 2007 near the head of tide in the river at Bridgetown. A post-mortem was inconclusive but suggested the whale had become trapped in the river after following fish through the sluice gates.
A new Fundy tidal energy project is underway, using submerged tidal stream generators. Using a variety of different technologies, the project is expected to be operational in 2010.
