Modelling tidal stream power potential

In recent years, there has been an increase in interest in renewable energy sources for a number of reasons. A particular interest in tidal energy has developed within the UK due to its numerous sites of high current velocity. In this article a development, based upon previous work, of an existing hydrodynamic computational model is shown which is used to study the potential generation and the physical impacts of tidal stream farms. An idealised geometry is used to study the impacts of installed capacity and general layout of tidal stream farms and a realistic UK west coast model is used to examine the potential of presently proposed in-stream farms.