My non-scientifically inclined brain wonders why it is impractical to generate energ from the motions of the oceans. I understand that waves and tides do not consistently flow in one direction, but couldn’t a device with a fluttering back-and-forth motion generate electricity?
It is happening - try this website
I guess the reasons for it not being all that popular are return on investment, interference with the Fishing industry and it doesn’t LOOK good to have a mass of floating tidal power generators all along the coast. I know that the first and third of these reasons are used to prevent the spread of “windmill” driven electricity generation…
Gp
Thanks for the link.
What a neat site.
I wish them tremendous success.
Who knows what the reality will be, but their mock-up image does not look all that intrusive. At least an improvement over oil-drenched seabirds!
And the upside, zero emissions and negligible production cost after recovery of investment, doesn’t exactly suck.
My mock up is more efficient an less intrusive than their mock up. Please send money.
I was looking for information on piping for a geothermal plant and found a site you may want to look at:
Thanks for the link, starfish.
Uh, I hope you don’t mind that I’ll be sending my $ to them instead of you! 
Tidal effects are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon as it orbits the earth and the sun as the earth rotates in relation to it*, so… exploiting tidal energy must be slowing the speed of rotation of the earth and slowing the velocity of the moon as it orbits; so we will end up with a 25 hour day (until the moon falls on our heads).
*[sup]Actually, everybody knows that the sun revolves around the earth(which is flat), but no matter[/sup]
Can I use the extra hour to sleep?
Actually, the tides cause the earth to slow down and cause the moon to go into a higher orbit. In about 50 billion years, one day and one month will be about the same as 47 2001-earth-days.