The project proposes 50 underwater turbines turned by the ebb and flow of the tide with a 3-mile-long transmission line that would carry the electricity to land to be sold to local utilities. Nantucket and Edgartown would be the beneficiaries of the 2 megawatts of peak output.
According to a preliminary assessment by the Electric Power Research Institute, that would be enough energy to power about 1,500 homes at 1.3 kilowatts per home daily. According to Massachusetts Tidal Energy Co., the second project is planned for Vineyard Sound and calls for construction of up to 150 tidal-energy generators.
They tell us that the 1.5 meters-per-second average current speed probably won’t hack it to turn the turbines fast enough for them to create enough electricity to make the project worth while. It takes a current speed of about 2 meters-per-second to get that kind of energy generation going.
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