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Comment by PakG1 | Hacker News Reader

Out of curiosity, is this a good idea? I'm no oceanologist, but I'd figure using tidal waves for energy would deplete the tidal waves of energy, no? And then that may have unintended consequences on ecosystems and climate? For example, would this have effects on El Nino (ENSO) cycles? I'm just grasping at straws here due to ignorance, but this smells fishy.

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The tidal power station in Rance, France, which was the largest in the world for almost 50 years, has wiped out a couple of species from the area and attracted another two over the years *

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rance_Tidal_Power_Station

The bigger unintended consequence is that this shades the area underneath the platform. That may not be so bad if it's in deep water, but in a shallower area it will have negative effects on the life underneath it.

Oceans are very big. Would this have any greater impact than wind turbines depleting energy from the wind?

Great questions that must be asked, but it sounds like having huge amounts of excess carbon in the oceans might have a much greater impact than stealing a percentage of wave energy. I do wonder if there is a percentage we can take without significant impact. Small numbers can add up and having another option for coastal cities can have a huge positive impact.

As far as the question about depleting the tidal waves of energy, I cannot imagine that it will ever be more than tiniest slice of that pie.

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