The technology for creating stable off shore islands has been developed for the luxury home market in Dubai. The World and Palm projects have proven that stability is just a matter of engineering. The adaptation of the island creating technology to generating, food, fuel, electricity and fertiliser should be a small matter.

On another matter, one of the main concerns for the walls and the overall structure is that of tropical depressions (cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes) and tsunami. Any potential realisation of a TIE System will experience forces many thousands of times stronger in extreme events than it will face during normal day to day operations. Like any other structure, an architect will need to make a decision about how robust to make the structure versus what is the frequency of the event and the effects of the destruction of the structure on the surrounding environment. In the case of a TIE System the type and frequency of these hyper-events is dictated by the location of construction. However, it should be noted that in all tropical depressions the ocean itself rises around 10 meters. This could be used to a TIE System’s advantage. By keeping the profile low to the tidal maximum’s mark, once submerged, the TIE System’s structure would be protected from the most damaging waves and extreme tidal streams.

The other factor in the equation; the effect of a breach of a TIE System should be minimal. Certainly, if not returned to the nutrient rich deep oceanic water (DOW), any macroscopic algae will die off after a couple of weeks. Depending on what animals are being grown in the lagoon some will die. The vast majority of the life in the lagoon will probably be eaten by the animals living around the TIE System. Once the system is running again, by seeding the DOW with the desired species (and other methods of mariculture) normal production can resume.

The last thing to consider in this forum about extreme events on the walls of the lagoon of a TIE System is that a failure of one part of the structure will not lead to a failure of another part. If the pressure builds to any point on the walls to where it bursts, this will instantly start a tidal stream that will completely release the pressure that allows the overall system to work. It should only fail in one spot and that should be relatively easy to fix.

It says in the press release that it was achieved by “microfabricating” the stack structure. These processes are notoriously difficult to “scale up”. There is little detail as to the cost of manufacture so we shall see. The Fuel Cells site has lots to say about methanol in fuel cells.

Methanol is a potential product of the Tidal Irrigation and Electrical System’s biomass. (see Algae/Marine Plants)