Tidal / Wave energy underappreciated

The New York Times had a nice story Thursday on wave energy technology. We basically get an overview of the technology, an update on where the innovation is at, and a sample of some of the projects currently in motion (so to speak). The article also raises some of the barriers to these projects, namely environmental groups that see massive turbines and structures put into the sea as a danger to fish and their surrounding ecosystems. Fair enough. Personally, I do like this technology and don't believe it's getting enough attention or funding compared to wind and solar. What's great about wave/tide energy systems is that they offer baseload more predictable power supply that you can't get with wind and solar. In Canada, I'm happy to see a little attention to tidal power in the latest funding round by Sustainable Development Technology Canada. A Calgary-based company called New Energy Corporation Inc., along with partners Canoe Pass Tidal Energy Corp. and Focus Environmental, are putting in a 500 kilowatt tidal power system in a narrow channel between Maude Island and Ouadra Island along British Columbia's west coast. "The technology to be demonstrated is New Energy's EnCurrent vertical axis turbine, which employs vanes mounted parallel to a vertical shaft to extract energy from a moving stream of water regardless of its direction," according to an SDTC description of the project. SDTC funded a smaller 65 kilowatt tidal project back in July 2005 near Victoria, B.C., led by Vancouver's Clean Current Power Systems. The goal of that initiative was to replace two diesel generators at a marine park with clean tidal power. In June, a study by the Electric Power Research Institute concluded that the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia was among three top North American sites for tidal power potential. The study determined that clean power could be produced there at less than 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, competitive with natural gas and wind and far cheaper than solar and clean coal. Enough electricity could be produced to power more than 100,000 homes. Of course, Canada already has a 20-megawatt tidal power generation station built in Nova Scotia during the early 1980s at Annapolis Royal. Russia and China have built similarly sized plants, while France has a 240-megawatt tidal plant. Not sure why we don't see more of these things...