No proposal to generate power from tidal waves: Govt

Government is not working on any proposal to generate power using tidal waves, Parliament was informed today.
"Government has no proposal at present to generate power using tidal waves," Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal said in written reply to the Lok Sabha.
About the government study on the potential of tidal energy, he said that "at Vizhinjam first oscillating water column was built in 1991 to study the feasibility of harnessing wave energy. But due to lower generation the plant was completely decommissioned and found techno-commercially not viable".
Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd had signed an MoU with Atlantis Resources Ltd (Joint venture of GPCL, Atlantis & PMES) for carrying out further studies and implementing a 50 MW pilot tidal based power project in at Gulf of Kutchha at Mandvi in 2010-11, the minister added.

According to the information available on the ministry's website, the total available potential of wave energy in India along the 6,000 km of India's coast is estimated to be about 40,000 MW - these are preliminary estimates. This energy is however less intensive than what is available in more northern and southern latitudes.
To capture sufficient power from the tidal energy potential, the height of high tide must be at least 5 meters (16 feet) greater than low tide, it said.
There are around 20 locations on earth with tides this high and India is one of them.
The Gulf of Cambay and the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat on the west coast have the maximum tidal range of 11 mts and 8 mts with an average tidal range of 6.77 mts and 5.23 mts respectively.