How much power would this thing generate (nameplate).

• 14 legs each separated by 3-4 miles.

• Average leg length = 15 miles

• Tidal fence has twin turbines at 1.5 MW per location

• Wind turbines are rated at 5 MW

• 1000 tidal turbines per leg (separation of about 20 meters) 1500 MW per leg x 14 legs = 21,000 MW for facility

• 100 Wind turbines per leg (separation of about 200 meters) = 500 mw per leg x 14 legs = 7000 MW for facility

Total facility nameplate capacity is 28000 MW. Total capacity factor would probably be close to 0.5 (tidal/current flow in this strait is pretty continuous and the wind is blowing a lot here).

Physio-geographic details of the Strait of Juan de Fuca (everything you would want to know).

This gives an output of 14,000 MW a large fraction of regional energy and there is no reason that the legs can't be made with less separation

Notes:

• This is a conservative estimate

• One could probably double the number of legs and get to 150 Wind turbines per leg.

• Most of the depth of the Straits is greater than 100 meters so one could easily double up vertically the number of tidal turbines that intercept the surface current caused by the continual tidal gradient. This mean one could effectively double the number of tidal turbines per leg.

• One could also go from 14 to 20 legs.

• In that case, at 50% capacity factor, total output is now 37,500 MW far more than the energy needs of the region. In fact, the regional energy need would be met if the capacity factor of this facility was only 1/3.

• One would need to develop an effective marine mammal protection system but this is not impossible. In principle, the marine mammal population could easily swim under the tidal turbines as there are tens of meters of depth available.

  Below is a representation of the now operational Sea Gen 1.2 MW twin turbine generator which is optimized for tidal flows of 2.4 m/sec (easily seen in the Straits). But note, again: the total mass of this structure is 1000 Tons! so thats 1000 Tons per MW for tidal generation compared to 100 Tons per MW for wind generation a very significant difference.