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The Penzhin Tidal Power Plant Project is a set of proposals for construction of a
tidal power Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods. Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has the potential for future electricity generation. Ti ...
plant in the
Penzhin Bay Penzhina Bay (russian: Пе́нжинская губа́, ''Penzhinskaya guba'') is a long and narrow bay off the northwestern coast of Kamchatka, Russia. Geography Penzhina Bay is the upper right arm of Shelikhov Bay in the northeastern corner o ...
, which is an upper right arm of
Shelikhov Bay Shelikhov Gulf (russian: залив Шелихова) is a large gulf off the northwestern coast of Kamchatka, Russia. The gulf is named after Russian explorer Grigory Shelikhov. It is located in the northeastern corner of the Sea of Okhotsk and ...
in the north-east corner of the
Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...
. Because Penzhin Bay has one of the strongest tides in the world, there have been several power station proposals. One proposed variant presumes an
installed capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, or maximum effect, is the intended full-load sustained output of a facility such as a power station,
of 87  GW and annual production of 200 
TWh TWH or twh could refer to: * Tai Dón language, a language of Vietnam, Laos, and China * Tai Wo Hau station, Hong Kong; MTR station code * Tennessee Walking Horse, a breed of horse * Toronto Western Hospital, a hospital in Toronto, Canada * Tun ...
. Geographically, the dam of the power station would extend through the administrative border of
Magadan Oblast Magadan Oblast ( rus, Магаданская область, r=Magadanskaya oblast, p=məgɐˈdanskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Far East region of the country, and is adminis ...
and
Kamchatka Krai Kamchatka Krai ( rus, Камча́тский край, r=Kamchatsky kray, p=kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), situated in the Russian Far East, and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. Its ...
of
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.


General information

The
tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...
s in
Penzhin Bay Penzhina Bay (russian: Пе́нжинская губа́, ''Penzhinskaya guba'') is a long and narrow bay off the northwestern coast of Kamchatka, Russia. Geography Penzhina Bay is the upper right arm of Shelikhov Bay in the northeastern corner o ...
are high, and reach in the case of
spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...
tides, which is the highest magnitude for the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. As the area of the bay basin is 20,530 km2 (7,930 mi2), it corresponds to diurnal discharge of 360–530 km3 (86–130 cu mi). This water rate is 20–30 times higher than that of the world's biggest river, the
Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...
. Two projects were developed for tidal power stations. The first would use the entire basin of the bay. The second proposes a smaller-scale plant, using the northern part of the basin with higher tides: Due to the lack of existing local energy consumers or long-distance power distribution infrastructure, there are suggestions for the station to provide power-consuming production. One such consumer, for example, would be the production of
liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33  K. However, for it to be in a fully li ...
.


Hydrological potential of the bay

The tides in the
Penzhin Bay Penzhina Bay (russian: Пе́нжинская губа́, ''Penzhinskaya guba'') is a long and narrow bay off the northwestern coast of Kamchatka, Russia. Geography Penzhina Bay is the upper right arm of Shelikhov Bay in the northeastern corner o ...
of the
Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...
are the highest for the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
, reaching a height of . The tides in
Shelikhov Bay Shelikhov Gulf (russian: залив Шелихова) is a large gulf off the northwestern coast of Kamchatka, Russia. The gulf is named after Russian explorer Grigory Shelikhov. It is located in the northeastern corner of the Sea of Okhotsk and ...
are of the diurnal type. The area of Penzhin Bay basin is 20,530 km2. Given that the average magnitude of tide is equal to , this gives the diurnal flow of water in the bay as or average discharge . The passing stream has its own
potential energy In physics, potential energy is the energy held by an object because of its position relative to other objects, stresses within itself, its electric charge, or other factors. Common types of potential energy include the gravitational potentia ...
, which in the
gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
field of Earth is above zero only in the case of non-zero head of water (H_) and can be expressed as follows: : E = rho_ \cdot S_ \cdot (H_ - H_)\cdot g \cdot H_, (1) where E denotes potential energy; \rho_ — density of
sea water Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approx ...
, equal to 1,027 kg/m3; S_ — area of basin; H_ — height of the tide and g
gravitational acceleration In physics, gravitational acceleration is the acceleration of an object in free fall within a vacuum (and thus without experiencing drag). This is the steady gain in speed caused exclusively by the force of gravitational attraction. All bodies ...
, set to 9.81 m/s2. The part of the expression in brackets denotes terms defining the mass of water passing through the basin daily. As can be seen in formula (1), the potential energy becomes zero in the case of zero head of water and in the case of equal heights of head and tide. If considering this formula as a function of head level (H_), it has a form of parabolic dependence, with its maximum at H_ = 2•H_ or at H_ = 5 m. This value of H_ gives two times lower height of tide in the bay and twice smaller average discharge of water — 5 m and (205.3 km3/day), correspondingly. The substitution of obtained parameters into (1) and dividing it by the day length in seconds gives the average capacity 120  GW. The latter one yields 1,054 TW•h or 3.79 
Joule The joule ( , ; symbol: J) is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to the amount of work done when a force of 1 newton displaces a mass through a distance of 1 metre in the direction of the force applied ...
s of energy annually. Depending on the efficiency of conversion of potential energy into electricity, the total quantity of electricity and electric capacity will have somewhat lower values. If one assumes an efficiency of conversion of 96%, this gives an average electric capacity of 115 GW and an available amount of electricity of 1,012 TW•h or 3.64 J per year.


See also

*
Tidal power Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods. Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has the potential for future electricity generation. Ti ...


References

{{Reflist Proposed tidal power stations Proposed renewable energy power stations in Russia Tidal power stations in Russia Sea of Okhotsk