The Tidal Irrigation and Electrical System

At first glance, this would appear to be the place where a Tidal Irrigation and Electrical System would seem impossible. Solid structures and the ocean are a terrible mix. Any structure must be built robustly enough to withstand extreme conditions. During the most intensive storms a Tidal Irrigation and Electrical System will encounter one hundred tons per square meter of force as thirty meter waves slam into the walls.

This is a tremendous amount of force. However, it is not beyond the current state of technology to build a structure robust enough to withstand the rigors of the continental shelf. For some time we have been building fixed structures offshore. Lighthouses, forts, and now petrochemical installations litter the world’s coastal waters. A TIE System is an extension of these structures but it will also need to borrow from both skyscraper and prefabrication technologies.

Of course, only the ocean facing side of a TIE System will need to be engineered to withstand the worst of the weather but with enough thick reinforced concrete, and by building double hulled walls that have been interconnected by struts, even the most massive waves can be absorbed.

There are two kinds of energy that the walls will encounter. The first of these is caused by the pushing of the water on the specific point of the wall. Water is much weaker than concrete and with an internal network of reinforcing it can be made to withstand one hundred tons per square meter of water. The second kind of energy will be from the resonance of the other waves striking the artificial atoll wall. The key is to give up the idea of the wall as a single object. There is no need to build the wall as a single monolithic structure. A double or triple wall interspersed with water filled “moats” that have struts which connect the walls will dissipate the resonant energy effectively. The water in the moats will act as a shock absorber in its own right and the struts can act against harmonics.

It will be far cheaper to prefabricate these wall sections, construct them in dry dock and tow them into place than to build them in situ.

Of course, the best kind of artificial atoll wall for fish farming would be a dredged wall that closely resembles a barrier island. It would have a sand bar and dune system on the outside and a shallows and mangrove interior – but this will be expensive. Only in the shallowest offshore waters will it be cost effective to build artificial atoll walls this way.

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