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On the potential of linked-basin tidal power plants: an operational and coastal modelling assessment
- Athanasios Angeloudis
- Stephan C. Kramer
- Noah Hawkins
- Matthew Piggott
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Description: Single-basin tidal range power plants have the advantage of predictable energy outputs, but feature non-generation periods in every tidal cycle to facilitate the essential turbine driving head difference. Linked-basin tidal power systems can reduce this variability and consistently generate power. However, as a concept the latter are under-studied with research and information on their potential performance relative to single-basin designs being limited. In an effort to address this, we outline the basic principles of linked-basin power plant operation and report results from their numerical simulation. Lagoon operational models are applied to gauge their capabilities relative to conventional, single-basin tidal power systems. A coastal ocean model (Thetis) has in turn been equipped with linked-basin modelling capabilities in addition to single-basin tidal power plant operation strategies. Simulations demonstrate that deployment of linked-basin systems can lead to non-generation times being substantially reduced at the expense of the overall energy output relative to conventional tidal lagoons and barrages. As an example, a hypothetical case is considered for a site in the Severn Estuary, UK. A linked-basin system is shown to be able to generate energy 80--100\% of the time over a spring-neap cycle, but harnesses ~30% of the energy of an equivalent-area single-basin design.