San Francisco weighs harnessing tides for electricity
07 May 2003
By Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO — The powerful ocean tides that surge daily beneath San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge may be tapped to generate electricity.
San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to launch a $2 million pilot project to study harnessing wave energy to generate enough electricity to light more than 750 homes in this city of 790,000 residents.
The project, which also needs environmental and other government approvals, is believed to be one of the first efforts in the United States to generate commercial tidal power, said Mark Westlund, a spokesman for the city's Department of the Environment. The tides that ebb and flow through the narrow Golden Gate would be channeled through an underwater concrete passageway with no moving parts, building up pressure and creating a suction effect to spin on-shore generators, Westlund said, adding that it would not interfere with busy shipping lanes.
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