Potential sites for tidal power generation: A thorough search at coast of New Jersey, USA

Abstract

In order to facilitate development of tidal power, a high-resolution survey with unprecedentedly fine grids has been made for marine hydrokinetic (MHK) energy at the seashore of New Jersey (NJ) and its neighbor states (Tang, Kraatz, Qu, Chen, Aboobaker, Jiang. High-resolution survey of tidal energy towards power generation and influence of sea-level-rise: a case study at coast of New Jersey, USA. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 32 (2014), 960–982). As a sequel as well as the finish to this survey, the current paper makes a thorough search for potential sites for actual tidal power generation along the entire shorelines of NJ and partial coast of New York, with special attention to locations near transportation infrastructures, and it evaluates their power density, surface area, water depth, distance to environmentally sensitive zones, etc. A list of 32 top sites are identified along the coastlines, and, among them, 21 sites with total surface area of 13 km 2 are located in the nearshore regions of NJ, and many sites are found next to its bridges. Another 10 favorable sites are also picked up near ports, docks, and marinas in NJ. An estimate indicates that 3.95×10 5 kW of tidal power could be extracted from the 21 sites. Analysis shows that sea-level-rise could substantially change tidal energy at the identified sites, and it is a factor that has to be taken into account in site selection. On the basis of these results, the approaches for a high-resolution survey for MHK energy are summarized and their future development is discussed.