SMITHSONIAN • April 1, 2020
Sometime this summer, Jason Hayman, who works for Sustainable Marine Energy (SME), plans to flip a switch that will send juice generated by a tidal energy device into the grid, displacing a chunk of the coal that provides about half of Nova Scotia’s energy. At that moment this unprepossessing rig, which from a distance looks like a dismasted trimaran awaiting restoration, will become the only operational floating tidal energy plant in North America. Tidal energy is one of the greatest untapped renewable sources on the planet. In the United States, with thousands of miles of coastline, developing just 5 percent of tidal energy’s “identified technical resource potential,” says the Department of Energy, would generate 12.5 terawatt hours per year.