http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55&ArticleID=15421&TM=56306.34The sea floor off Point Wilson is being eyed as the potential site for 450 turbines that would use the forceful tides there to generate electricity for what could eventually be one of the first tidal power projects in the United States.
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Snohomish PUD describes in its application windmill-like devices with propeller blades 20 meters in diameter. They would be anchored to the ocean floor, and the moving action of the tides would spin the blades to produce electricity.
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Taylor said the turbines spin at about 32 rpm – slow enough for fish and other marine life to swim out of the way. Still, they’re installing six “hydroacoustic transducers” that will monitor how fish negotiate each one of the turbines. Taylor anticipates very little environmental impact. But if there is an adverse impact, the turbines can be quickly removed.
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At the high end, they speculate that the field of 450 turbines in Admiralty Inlet would produce 146.2 gigawatt hours per year – enough electricity to fully supply 10 percent of Snohomish County’s more than 600,000 residents. Combined, the other turbine fields proposed for Puget Sound would fill 3 percent of Snohomish County’s current power need, they said.
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