A 1,400-Year-Old Idea That Might Save the Climate

Video Description

Tidal energy is one of the oldest forms of renewable power, dating back over 1,400 years to early tide mills. But despite centuries of promise, tidal power still provides a tiny fraction of the world’s electricity. Why? In this video, we explore the engineering behind tidal range and tidal stream technologies, visit the University of Southampton’s towing tank to see how modern turbines are tested, and look at the projects currently being built in the UK that could finally scale this technology. We’ll cover the pros—predictability, energy density, low emissions—and the very real challenges—cost, complexity, and limited viable locations. Can tidal power ever compete with wind and solar, or will it remain a niche solution? I would like to than the ERA Foundation for supporting the creation of these videos through their STEM Digital Communicator grant. If you would like to help develop the Engineering with Rosie channel, you could consider joining the Patreon community, where there is a chat community (and Patreon-only Discord server) about topics covered in the videos and suggestions for future videos and production quality improvements. https://www.patreon.com/engineeringwithrosie Or for a one-off contribution you can support by buying a coffee ☕️ here — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/engwithrosie Bookmarks: 00:00 Intro 01:11 History of tidal power 01:55 Tidal range vs tidal stream 02:49 University of Southampton Bouldrewood towing tank 03:27 How does tidal stream work 04:58 Tidal barrage and tidal lagoons 05:35 Current tidal power projects in the UK 08:25 Challenges faced by tidal power 10:27 Environmental challenges with tidal power 11:09 UK tidal energy potential 11:59 The future of tidal power 13:18 Global tidal energy potential 14:36 Outro Sources: https://www.perchenergy.com/blog/energy/tidal-power-explained-renewable-tidal-energy https://ei.lehigh.edu/learners/energy/tidal/tidal4.html#:~:text=People%20have%20harnessed%20the%20tides,high%20tide%20and%20low%20tide. https://tethys.pnnl.gov/project-sites/la-rance-tidal-barrage https://earth.org/what-is-tidal-energy/ https://www.theearthandi.org/post/tidal-energy-enormous-promise#:~:text=The%20history%20of%20tidal%20energy,398MW%20through%20three%20development%20phases. https://www.pnnl.gov/explainer-articles/tidal-energy https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66d6ad7c6eb664e57141db4b/Contracts_for_Difference_Allocation_Round_6_results.pdf https://marine.gov.scot/sites/default/files/oceanstar_pid_v1.0.pdf https://novainnovation.com/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032119301911 https://marine.gov.scot/sites/default/files/oceanstar_pid_v1.0.pdf https://saerenewables.com/tidal-stream/meygen/ https://www.seastar-tidal.eu/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370739318/figure/fig1/AS:11431281158076640@1684001815504/Tidal-energy-potential-in-the-world-Note-that-size-of-red-dots-indicates-magnitude-of.ppm https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148118305263 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-tidal-power-rides-a-wave-of-clean-energy-optimism-pitfalls-persist/ https://ore.catapult.org.uk/?orecatapultreports=tidal-stream-technology-roadmap A huge thank you to the University of Southampton's Bouldrewood Towing Tank and Professor Luke Myers and Dr Penny Jeffcoate for the interview and Rodolfo Olvera-Trejo for amazing organisation to get me into the towing tank on short notice! https://www.southampton.ac.uk/research/facilities/towing-tank https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luke-Myers-2 https://www.linkedin.com/in/penny-jeffcoate-3990573a/ If you noticed that the cinematography is far better than my usual standard in this video, it's because it was filmed by Jamie from SouthPoint Films http://southpointfilms.com/ The Engineering with Rosie team is: Rosemary Barnes: presenter, producer Javi Diez: editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/javierdiezsuarez/?locale=en_US