Modelling and feasibility study on using tidal power with an energy storage utility for residential needs

Tidal power technology is at its mature stage and large deployments are soon expected. The characteristics of tidal energy and its advantage to be predictable make it an ideal type of resource to be coupled with energy storage facilities. Despite this, most energy storage facilities are expensive. The fact that water has a high specific heat capacity makes this a potential cost-effective medium to be used for storing large amounts of thermal energy for balancing renewable energy output. This paper is an investigation on the possible application of integrating hot water reservoirs for storing tidal energy during power output peaks for domestic use. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the major factors incident on the proposed solution and to provide considerations on which real remunerations the proposed idea could bring to communities or to single families. For this purpose, a simplified numerical analysis, concerning three different scenarios, was performed. These scenarios differ by type of buildings and type of thermal energy demand. The study mainly concerns remote communities. Findings indicated that the proposed idea is technically feasible and if applied in the context of residential compounds, this could be more attractive in economic terms.