Tidal Energy

A plan to build a barrier across the Mersey is starting to take shape. If it goes ahead, the ambitious project would becomes the largest tidal range facility in the world, while also offering pedestrians and cyclists safe passage across the river.

Minesto's fully operational Dragon 12 looks like some sort of futuristic military drone – but it behaves remarkably like a kite underwater. It uses lift generated by tidal flows to fly patterns faster than the currents, harvesting renewable energy.

Self-deploying sea barriers offer coastal towns some protection from the destructive forces of tsunamis – but one problem can arise when power goes out in a disaster scenario. Hence this Japanese proposal for a wall that generates its own power.

Japan's solar potential isn't great, but it does sit right next to one of the world's most powerful ocean currents – so the country is searching for novel ways to bulk up its green energy generation in the form of giant deep ocean turbines.

Following the official launch of "the world's most powerful tidal turbine" in April, Orbital Marine Power has announced that the O2 has started grid-connected power generation at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

Looking to leverage all the motion in the ocean is UK startup Sustainable Marine, whose floating tidal turbine rotors just breezed through a testing regime that simulated 20 years of real-world conditions.

We've already heard about renewable energy systems that use aerial kites to generate electricity via the wind. Well, the Manta system is kind of similar, although it uses an underwater kite that "flies" in tidal or river currents.

Scotland's Orbital Marine Power has completed the build on what it claims will be the world's most powerful operational tidal turbine. It's now on its way to the Orkney Islands, where it'll have a chance to prove its worth connected to the grid.

Nova Innovation has announced the installation of the first electric vehicle charge point powered by tidal energy, which is located on the island of Yell in the Shetlands.

Margot Krasojević has unveiled a new conceptual work, and as usual, it's thought-provoking, abstract, and ambitious. The proposal envisions a coastal sculpture gallery that uses hydroelectric energy to power up to 200 homes.

Scotrenewables Tidal Power has announced that its SR2000 floating tidal stream turbine prototype has managed to generate more than 3 GWh of renewable electricity during its first year of continuous operation.

The tidal power MeyGen project is now officially underway, with Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, unveiling four 1.5 MW turbines, which together make up Phase 1A of the project, at an event in the Nigg Energy Park in Scotland.