Abstract
The dynamic tidal power system adopts a coast perpendicular dike in capturing tidal potential energy and is basin free as opposed to the conventional tidal barrage system. Since it is important for the developers to have detailed information of the power output characteristics prior to implementation, the temporal evolution of the power output has been studied to improve the understanding of the dynamic tidal power resource using a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model. The model accurately simulates the tidal motion characteristic of Chinese marginal seas. As an essential input for the temporal power estimation, the turbine operation is taken into account for this study, while the watertight dike has often been considered in previous feasibility studies. The results show that the monthly average power output increases, reaches a maximum, and then decreases with an increase in the number of turbines. The temporal evolution of power is featured by strong semidiurnal intermittency due to the semidiurnal tide. The peak power is recorded as 2.81 GW during spring tide, when 8% of the dike is opened for turbines. The magnitude reduces in both the middle and neap tide stages. Four peaks in the monthly average hourly power variation histogram were picked up, with much more homogeneity as compared with the power series during any specific tidal stage. Structurally, the T-branch added to the seaward tip of the I-shaped system is called the T end and forms the T-shaped system. It is proposed that this T-shaped system leads to an increase in production. The T end harvests substantially greater M2 energy than K1 energy near the seaward end of the system. The concentration of M2 energy contributes to the improvement in power production.