A review of global tidal stream energy resources

This review identifies 426 candidate sites with potentially suitable characteristics for tidal stream energy development, across 19 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia. The most common site assessment quantifies the theoretical resource, which is the maximum amount of total energy that can be extracted. The aggregated theoretical resource estimate, of 1000 TWh/year, from 262 sites (62% of those identified), across 6 countries, is equivalent to 115 GW of continuous annual power. A more informative, albeit less common assessment, considers technical, environmental and economic constraints on energy extraction. New data from UK assessments is presented that indicates relationships between the theoretical and this more practical level of energy extraction, which are used to derive practical levels of electricity generation at other sites across the world. Results indicate a quasi-practical resource of 110 TWh/year from 90 sites (20% of the candidate sites) across the UK, France, Canada, USA, China and New Zealand. When assessed against national/regional electricity production, the UK, Indonesia and New Zealand show the greatest potential to make national-scale electricity supply contributions, whilst France, Canada, USA and China exhibit lower, regional-scale impact potential. Resource estimation is highly sensitive to turbine/array design and practical constraints, and studies adopt a wide range. Consequently, reported P10 and P90 resource estimates can lie 40% above/below their P50 estimate, respectively. Recommendations are made to characterize this sensitivity of the resource to these drivers.