Note: This column represents the opinions
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There was a time when New Zealand was the envy of many developed nations.
The reason for this envy was the abundance of cheap, non-polluting electricity
that flowed from a network of generation facilities that were largely based
on non-polluting renewable resources such as hydro and geothermal.
Today, as technology has advances, we've become increasingly
dependent on electricity and I suspect we're using far more of it than we
used to.
And that's a bit of a problem -- because it seems that the amount of electricity
we're generating from non-polluting, renewable resources hasn't increased a lot.
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What's worse, many the power-hungry consumers have moved to Auckland which
is a very long way away from the major hydro generation facilities in the
South Island.
Now we have a supply problem.
The natural gas which was only ever going to be a stop-gap measure is already
running out and lake levels are low. We're told to expect power cuts this winter
and that the problem isn't going to go away any time soon.
And, as every consumer knows, due to the laws of supply and demand, the price
for electricity has continued to climb at an alarming rate.
So where can we get the new energy we so badly need to keep our industry and
hi-tech gadgetry ticking along?
More dams? I don't know -- damming rivers can actually have quite significant
social and environmental impact -- and, unfortunately, most of the best
sites for new hydro schemes are still a long way from where the power will
actually be used.
More fossil-fuel stations? That's going to be expensive and will increase our
reliance on imported oil. And don't forget the pollution!
Wind power? Possibly -- but their visual impact on the skyline would probably
make it impossible to get the necessary resource consents. And let's not forget
just how fickle the wind can be.
Nuclear power? You've got to be kidding -- right? Regardless of the reality,
there's a public (and Prime Ministerial) perception that nuclear power is
evil and dangerous so I can't see any nuclear plants being built here any
time soon.
Well here's my suggestion...
Moon power!
I'm not kidding. Every day there's an enormous amount of energy delivered
along our coastline by way of tidal flows -- which are generated by the
moon's pull on our oceans.
New Zealand is a long, thin country that runs pretty much from north to south
so the difference in level between the water on one side and the water on the
other can be quite significant. In effect, the entire north and south islands
are acting as a giant dam.
Even better -- one of the narrowest parts of the North Island is the gap
between the Waitemata and Manukau harbours. Surely if we ran a pipeline
between the two harbours and stuck turbines in the middle then we'd have
a power generation system that was guaranteed to provide a known (and huge)
amount of power every day, regardless of the sun, wind or rain.
If the environmental impact of reducing the amount of tidal rise and fall
within the harbours was deemed to be unacceptable, there's always the
other option of placing turbines in the mouth of large estuaries. The alternating
in-flow and out-flow would generate significant power for around 10-12 hours
of each day.
With either option, the power output would rise and fall in sync with the tides
themselves so there would be two periods each day when generation ceased --
but during those periods we could fall back on the gas and hydro schemes
down-country.
And let's not forget one of the key advantages of such a system -- it provides
power generation right in the middle of Auckland where so much of NZ's power
is consumed. This all but eliminates the risks, losses and inefficiencies associated
with long transmission lines.
Well that's my suggestion, what's yours?
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