Appraising the extractable tidal energy resource of the UK's western coastal waters

A two-dimensional west coast tidal model, built on the ADCIRC platform (an unstructured grid two-dimensional depth-integrated shallow water model), has been developed to examine the scope for reliable and fully predictable electricity generation from UK coastal waters using an ambitious combination of estuary barrages, tidal lagoons and tidal stream generator arrays. The main emphasis has been towards conjunctive operation of major estuary barrages, initially including the presence of pilot-scale tidal stream developments, though ambitious exploitation of extensive tidal streams has also been explored.