The competition to produce current from the currents is going global. Britain has installed the first tide farm in Devon, UK and hopes to turn on the juice later this year. In New York City, a 6-turbine installation, called the Roosevelt Island Turbine Energy (RITE) project is the testing bed for a possible expansion at the site that could end up generating 10MW for up to 8,000 local homes. For now, though, the experiment only has enough oomph to serve the needs of a nearby grocery store.

Not to be left in Britain's or America's wake, Ontario, Canada has just announced $2.2 million in funding for a 15MW facility in the Ontario River near Cornwall. The Cornwall Ontario River Energy (CORE) project is expected to power about 11,000 homes, one of the first to use river currents rather than tides. The turbines will be provided by Verdant Power, who provided the blades for the RITE project as well.

If things go well, Canada could be convinced to tap its estimated 15,000 megawatts of available tide and river resources and lighting things up 11 million families.

Verdant says that their 16.4 foot diameter turbines pose little danger to fish since the blades turn at about 32 RPM and because "leading edges are very rounded and blunt." I'll certainly take them at their word (and their extensive monitoring), but an animation of the system looks like kind of like a watery death gauntlet.

Bonus Link: CNN has a wonderfully painful-to-watch report on the East River project, complete with clumsy NY accent and references to ill-fated "wise guys."