A new tidal power plant is being planned in South Korea. The "Seaturtle Tidal Park" will be the largest such implementation of tidal power technology in the country.

The first turbine for the new tidal park has been developed by Voith in Germany, and now in cooperation with Korean partner Renetec, the new turbine will be installed in Korea for testing. The unit is capable of generating 110 kW of power (sounds small, but remember it's going to be an array of tidal turbines). The trial phase is going to be running until the end of 2010, when construction of the tidal power plant will officially begin. Once completed, the power plant will output 150 MW of clean electricity, which is enough for supplying about 100,000 average households.

It is estimated that the energy potential that could be harnessed from the seas worldwide is about 1100 GW. Some optmistic estimates say that about 15% of the world's energy consumption can be satisfied through marine energy.

[source: Voith, image: Voith]