News: The power of water

Plans for India to have Asia's biggest Commercial Scale Tidal Power Plant
 
 
The Indian state Gujarat has approved plans for London-based tidal energy company Atlantis Resources to India’s first commercial tidal farm in on India’s West coast in the Gulf of Kutch. Atlantis Resources is also known for creating the world’s largest tidal turbine in the world in Scotland.
 
Plans for construction start early 2012 and be completed by 2013. Investigations are currently taking place to assess whether or not tidal power can be combined with offshore wind resources.
 
If initial plans of the initial 50MW generation prove to be successful, the project could be expanded to just over an estimated 250MW of power, creating the very real possible of being the largest commercial wind farm in Asia. Currently, the title is held by Korean developments in Sihwa Lake projected to be 254 MW. Projections of cost of Gujarat’s project sit at around 165 million dollars.
 
 Much hype has ensued over Gujarat being targeted as India’s “hotspot” for renewable resources. Though power has not yet been generated from the farm, there is certainly a notable excitement generated in India, as evidenced by the hype riddled in blogs and online media sources. With India’s continued economic and population growth, energy security is becoming increasingly a massive issue for the country to face.