Regulatory, design and methodological impacts in determining tidal-in-stream power resource potential

► Inventorying kinetic energy is not appropriate for assessing the tidal energy potential and may overestimate the resource by orders of magnitude. ► The physical maximum for tidal power extraction is 38% of the total fluid power of a channel and causes a flow reduction of 42%. ► Any amount of tidal power generation will reduce the flow rate in a channel. ► Limiting the permitted reduction in flow significantly reduces the available resource. ► Turbine efficiency is important as extraneous resistance depletes the resource without providing power generation.