Cheap, renewable, clean energy. There’s just one problem.

The Bay of Fundy has cheap, clean power: if you can harness it. ■ AD: 👨💻 NordVPN’s best deal is here: https://nordvpn.com/tomscott – with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)
📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/
❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: https://lateralcast.com/ https://youtube.com/lateralcast/
➕ TOM SCOTT PLUS: https://youtube.com/tomscottplus
👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: https://youtube.com/techdif
@TomScottGo
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Thank you to the hundreds of people who've sent me ideas about the Bay of Fundy over the years. I decided to film all those ideas in one video. And thanks also to: ■ AD: 👨💻 NordVPN, whose best deal is here: https://nordvpn.com/tomscott
@hades1696
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
How Tom Scott went from debunking VPN ads to install them in his clips?
@WalterHildahl
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Not spinney things. Floaty thing on a lever With a gear at the other end.
@ChristopherTradeshow
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
what if they made the turbine blades like a mesh/screen allowing some water/fish to pass thru. might make it less likely to break too since there's "less" pressure on it
@GraceOliviaf7y
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
I think investors should always put their cash to work, especially In 2024, we'll start to see more market diversification. I'm hoping to invest about $350k of my savings in stocks against next year. Hope to make millions in 2024
@tigerphid9677
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Over time, we are discovering that all 'green' energy is false. None of it works…. except on paper and with huge taxpayer subsidies. Environmentalists then get rich off of it, and the rest of us are left with a degraded energy supply.
@e4t662
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
I like physics.
@SANDSCORCHER
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Presumably it will just have to take as long as it takes (probably decades) for materials to evolve to the point that they can take a significant pasting at sea without disintegrating, before this type of tidal power harnessing is feasible.
@Narokkurai
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Is there no way to construct an artificial bay whose resonant frequency is equal to the tides? Or even some fraction, to limit the power and also the damage to the turbines?
@selenefrost6267
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
turbines seem unnecessary, just connect motors to big floats
@HiVizCamo
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
If you've never been, go there. Don't just do 2-3 days, plan on a week minimum, and consider a month. Tour the whole coastline staring at Grand Manan, ending at Cape Breton. And oh look, PEI is just off shore 😊
@gmattk
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Why don’t they mount the generators on a floating pontoon and belt drive them from a robust paddle wheel. Have a mesh to stop the ice or tow it out the way.
@arailway8809
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Looks like they have been trying to maximize the power
by ignoring the rocks. Maybe if they set up screens
to divert the rocks, etc. they will have a dependable
power source. There are other areas: France and Korea
that have similar tidal properties.
Thanks Tom. I was not expecting to go to the bathroom
with you and a camera.
@SketchyRob
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
If only Government would back the Bristol barrage. Could produce 14% of the power demand predictably for the next century. At a price tag of £20bn while also providing a new road link across the channel whats not to like
@sammencia7945
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
We have nuclear power but won't build the reactors.
This is about authoritarian control of every aspect of life.
We are the carbon they want to reduce. Humans. They want fewer of us.
@michellewentworth9862
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Tidal power does not work because the oceans are a massively unfriendly place for electricity generating machines.
@jobson586
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
The World $Business Model functions on currency cycles, any alternatives fail by a wide margin in this current Agenda.
@aussienscale
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Well 3 problems actually !! It is not cheap, it is not renewable and it is not clean !!
@qualicumwilson5168
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
15 meter tidal change? Yes but those are the "Spring Tides". Average change, at the "extreme" minus basin, is less than 10 meters. Still very big but you should use average changes, not the extremes. That is what you would really generate power on. If you really want to generate power look at the English channel, 4 plus meter tides over 150 MILES. Plus you get a road to the continent AND stop most flooding of Holland and German north sea regions (Copenhagen has a tide of INCHES (like about 2-3 between high and low) ) so the damaging tides in the north sea could be stopped as they are just the tidal bore flowing the the English Channel. Dam-stop the entire bore and TADA:- NO high tide that day.
@bozhidarmihaylov
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Lovely dynamics 😊
@yugimotobutjacked3231
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
quit the hints Corporate pressure means no water power
@kenhyde1781
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Not sure what the point of this video is, but the oldest tidal energy plant was built in France in 1966. That's 56 years of tidal energy production, no broken turbines, etc. So why would you ask: "Can it be done?"
@tthrons_jcl
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
You should have a look at Horizontal Falls in Broom Australia. It’s amazing.
@F3uertrunk3n
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Why not use a buoy that rises and falls with the tide, and pushes a generator as it goes up and down?
@DavidJohnson-yg8qm
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Imagine if we constructed a 'port' on a coast, which we could control, generating electricity. We could cut coastal erosion too if sited correctly.
@grahamgillard3722
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
We’ve known all this for decades.
@calvingreene90
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Make the turbines water intakes look like a shark mouth and the other fish will work very hard to avoid going in them.
@karlostj4683
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
If the answer always comes up "maybe" then maybe stop asking the question.
@randywise5241
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Why not use a big paddle wheel?
@invisibilianone6288
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
I'll tell you a secret,,,,
"DON'T F*** WITH THE EARTHS PENDULUM"😁
@jayffemt
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
The Quoddy dam project was started in the 1930s in Eastport Me to harness the tides. The only remains are a couple of causeways.
@marcusmoonstein242
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Ship propellers. Make the turbine blades out of ship propellers.
@esmenhamaire6398
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Might a "Salter's Duck" setup be feasible? or an MHD setup – no blades to harm anything, and no stopping fish from going where they want to? or is the tidal enegy so strong that nothig can reliably be anchored there?
@TrentSpriggs-n7c
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Use the surplus electricity of grids, as hydrogen streams. Easy money. Electricity is already on hand, and it can be repackaged at any site of convenience.
Cash in on the regenerative grid concept.
@stephennelmes4557
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Instead of placing turbines under water, paddle wheels on the surface might be a better solution?.
@volta2aire
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
You need a heavy and large dirty water reservoir you can open and close with gates or locks. Inside it, you need a smaller clean water reservoir like a bladder that is piped to below-grade tanks on shore. The turbines can be located in the clean-water pipe.
@gaemlinsidoharthi
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Fish? Rocks? Surely putting a metal grill around the turbine, despite reducing its efficiency a bit, would protect the turbine and give the fish a fighting chance. If any backward looking populations – no matter their origins – are backward enough to complain about free energy, they’d have to be ignorant enough to not be even aware of underwater turbines. If they are made aware, but they’re dishonest and only in it for any benefits they can scrounge by pretending some kind of cultural violation then they’re an embarrassment to all the less dishonest members of their population and should be put in the corner by their honest fellows and otherwise ignored.
@sigmasquadleader
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Sixteen meters, six meters, or 60 meters?
@tomholroyd7519
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
just put a screen on it
@GoranXII
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
It would be less powerful, but perhaps more survivable to use the outgoing tide only, a sort of pumped storage hydro system that naturally refills every 12 hours.
@OscarDay-o7l
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
I absolutely love how he made a concise presentation. Brilliant!. 10/10 editing on this one! Nice work!.
@scoutgaming737
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
The real question is, why does that factory need to he right there. And there's definitely cheaper land nearby
@dirtblock4232
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
That factory is the Irving pulp and paper mill, and it is the reason the reversing falls has so many rapids
@KaanTechCrazy
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
I mean I don’t think anyone of importance will see my comment but did anyone tried vertical plane type moving part to create friction and does not effect the fish or any wild life as well as has the ability to withstand extreme water pressures ?
@bronkolie
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Thank you for giving a real reason to use a VPN, rather than spouting nonsense about encryption, malware, or streaming services
@Ponk_80
October 27, 2024 at 12:31 am
Actually the one problem is that we assume that it’s impossible. If we put our minds to it, and really tried to find a solution, it would be inevitable.