Everybody must be familiar with the sun light being used as a source of electricity, but have you heard of using Moon to generate electricity??? Yes, it is true. Scientists have succeeded in using moon's gravitational pull to spin specially designed turbines to generate electricity. Well, it's not that simple as it sounds. Tides at sea are mainly caused by the gravitational power of the moon and also to certain extent, the sun's gravity. The moon's gravitational pull is more than that of the sun just by the fact that moon is closer to earth than the Sun. This makes its gravity about 2.3 times more than the Sun's. Since the moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days, every part of the earth at sometime get affected by its gravitational pull. This effect can be felt most on the earth's water bodies. Moon's gravity is the main cause of tides. The height of the tide depends on the moons position relative to the earth; called the high tides and low tides. The changing tide produced at a given location is the result of the changing positions of the Moon and Sun relative to the Earth coupled with the effects of Earth rotation and the bathymetry of oceans, seas and estuaries.
Due to the earth's rotation and moon's revolution around the earth, on a given day every part of the earth waterbodies experience 2 high tides and 2 low tides. When high tide happens, the water level increases beyond the normal height and viceversa, during a low tide. During this process energy is generated. It is this energy that the scientists have finally succeeded in harnessing. When the sealevel rises due to the high tide, the water gets stored in special reservoirs. Now during the low tide, this stored water is released and made to turn turbines to generate electricity. Significant amount of electricity can be produced using this process.
A minimum of 5metres of water level increase is required for this process. In certain areas of France water level rises 13 to 15mts during high tides. It is due to this fact that France was the first country to start a power plant for harnessing Lunar energy. It was in 1967, the RANCE power plant opened in France. It had 24 power generators which together produced 10MW of electricity. After France, Canada and Russia started similar power plants. Other countries are yet to catchup.
In Norway, researches have found another means of producing electricity using tidal force. During the tidal changes, the speed of water also significantly rises. Using this water speed, underwater turbines can be turned just like the wind-mills. According to the researchers, in oceans and other water bodies, where ever there is a minimum 3mtr/sec flow of water, this process of generating electricity can be implemented.
The above methods are 100% pollution free. 11,00,000MW of energy can be produced using lunar power around the globe in an year, in which only 10% can be used to generate electricity. This fact makes these methods, highly expensive when compared to the prevailing processes on electricity generation. Hence the consumers will have to pay phenomenal amounts of money for using such produced electricity. So is it worth??? As of now, NO is the answer. But when earth's other sources of energy gets depleted, as a powerful source like the Sun, Moon will shine more brighter . Lets hope and pray that such a time is not nearby.
Due to the earth's rotation and moon's revolution around the earth, on a given day every part of the earth waterbodies experience 2 high tides and 2 low tides. When high tide happens, the water level increases beyond the normal height and viceversa, during a low tide. During this process energy is generated. It is this energy that the scientists have finally succeeded in harnessing. When the sealevel rises due to the high tide, the water gets stored in special reservoirs. Now during the low tide, this stored water is released and made to turn turbines to generate electricity. Significant amount of electricity can be produced using this process.
A minimum of 5metres of water level increase is required for this process. In certain areas of France water level rises 13 to 15mts during high tides. It is due to this fact that France was the first country to start a power plant for harnessing Lunar energy. It was in 1967, the RANCE power plant opened in France. It had 24 power generators which together produced 10MW of electricity. After France, Canada and Russia started similar power plants. Other countries are yet to catchup.
In Norway, researches have found another means of producing electricity using tidal force. During the tidal changes, the speed of water also significantly rises. Using this water speed, underwater turbines can be turned just like the wind-mills. According to the researchers, in oceans and other water bodies, where ever there is a minimum 3mtr/sec flow of water, this process of generating electricity can be implemented.
The above methods are 100% pollution free. 11,00,000MW of energy can be produced using lunar power around the globe in an year, in which only 10% can be used to generate electricity. This fact makes these methods, highly expensive when compared to the prevailing processes on electricity generation. Hence the consumers will have to pay phenomenal amounts of money for using such produced electricity. So is it worth??? As of now, NO is the answer. But when earth's other sources of energy gets depleted, as a powerful source like the Sun, Moon will shine more brighter . Lets hope and pray that such a time is not nearby.
Based on an article found in Deshabhimani daily, by Rajan Pullangattil.
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