Tidal energy what is tidal energy?

It's a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into electricity.
First utilisation : the Middle Ages
The first tidal power plant started operation in 1966.
Not yet very used but tidal power has a big potentiel for future electricity generation inconvénient : there are few sites with sufficiently high tidal ranges ( 16 feet ) or flow velocities

Tidal energy is produced through the use of tidal energy generators. These large underwater turbines are placed in areas with high tidal movements, and are designed to capture the kinetic motion of the ebbing and surging of ocean tides in order to produce electricity. Tidal power has great potential for future power and electricity generation because of the massive size of the oceans. These articles explore the potential energy of tidal power technologies.
Tidal power can be classified into three generating methods:
1. Tidal Barrages

A tidal barrage is built across an estuary.
When the tide goes in and out, the water flows through tunnels in the dam. the dam is used to capture the energy from masses of water moving in and out of a bay or river due to tidal forces.
Turbines are placed in these tunnels to capture the energy as the water flows in and out. Turbines installed in the barrage wall generate power as water flows in and out of the estuary basin, bay, or river

2.Tidal stream generator
Tidal stream generators (TSGs) make use of the kinetic energy of moving water to power turbines, in a similar way to wind turbines that use moving air. This method is gaining in popularity because of the lower cost and lower ecological impact compared to tidal barrages.

A tidal stream generator (TSG) is a machine that extracts energy from moving masses of water, or tides. These machines function very much like underwater wind turbines, hence are also sometimes referred to as tidal turbines.

TSGs are the cheapest and the least ecologically damaging among the