Eco Factor: Plan to transform Dutch dikes into tidal power generators.
The Netherlands have been protected by ocean dikes that guard the coastline after the disaster in 1953, which killed more than 1800 people and left over half a million acres of land flooded by the North Sea. The extensive Delta Works that were constructed over the next four decades and completed in 1997 could not do much more than protecting the people of the Netherlands.
A committee of various government representatives is now planning to use this vast structure as a tidal power generator as the openings in the series of the dikes would provide an ideal location for tidal power plants. The primary motivator behind the project isn’t actually renewable energy, but the interest is in restoring the natural condition to estuaries and tidal flats whose character has degraded over the years since the dikes were installed.
Image Courtesy: Flickr [Under a Creative Commons License]
Via: EcoGeek
