Tidal Energy

  

The objective of the tidal energy programme is to study, testing and assessment of the potential of tidal energy in the country and to harness it for power generation.

Among the various forms of energy contained in the seas and oceans, tidal energy, has been developed on a commercial scale. India has a long coastline with the estuaries and gulfs where tides are strong enough to move turbines for electrical power generation. The Gulf of Cambay and the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat on the west coast have the maximum tidal range of 11m and 8m with average tidal range of 6.77m and 5.23m respectively. The Ganges Delta in the Sundarbans is approximately 5m with an average tidal range of 2.97m. The identified economic power potential is of the order of 8000 MW with about 7000 MW in the Gulf of Cambay, about 1200 MW in the Gulf of Kachchh in the State of Gujarat and about 100 MW in the Gangetic Delta in the Sunderbans region in the State of West Bengal.

The Ministry sanctioned a project for setting up a 3.75 MW demonstration tidal power plant at Durgaduani Creek in Sunderbans, West Bengal to the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (WBREDA), Kolkata. The National Hydro Power Corporation Ltd. (NHPC) is executing the project on a turnkey basis.

The State Government of Gujarat formed a Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) with public private partnership and sponsored a study for large scale exploitation of tidal energy across the coastline of Gujarat. This study is based on one of the advanced technologies developed so for. In this technology kinetic energy of tidal currents has been proposed to be harnessed under the water and along the flow of water and without using the conventional methods like water wheel or other types of turbines.