561. Blue Energy - Christina Sinclair: Salty Sam's Fun Blog for Children

November 14th, 2025

Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children

Number 561

Blue Energy

Hello Everyone

Well, autumn will be turning into winter soon here in Rocky Bay.

lt is about this time of year, that the temperature really drops, and although it has been really warm this autumn, l must say that it will probably be getting chilly quite soon.

Luckily, l have my potbellied stove to keep me lovely and warm, here in my lighthouse, when it gets cold.

l think that my lighthouse is a very picturesque landmark off the coast of Rocky Bay.

The tourists love going round it on Captain Jack’s boat through the summer months. l wave to them when they go past.

Lots of other places nowadays, have groups of tall wind turbines situated a short way off shore. You can find wind turbines on land too. These machines produce energy when the wind turns their large blades.

This is renewable energy because the wind is a renewable resource.

lt is also possible to put machines that produce energy, called tidal stream turbines under the sea as well. These machines are powered by tidal movement in the water.

They produce what has been dubbed ‘blue energy’.

This is sustainable energy because it is sea-powered.

The Sun does not shine on solar panels at night.

The wind does not always blow wind turbines.

But the tides are always flowing backwards and forwards under the influence of the Moon. You get tides in the day time, and the night time, and they are totally predictable.

The sea turbines are put where tidal pressure will be high, and if they are positioned in a narrow channel between two pieces of land where the water is put under pressure, the flow of water will be even stronger.

The turbines sit on the sea bed a long way under the bottom of boats so that they won’t crash into them, or on pillars that have their tops above the waves so that they can be easily seen.

Thousands of hours of research have been done using undersea cameras to observe the effects that turbines have on undersea wildlife.

Some shoals of fish congregate around them like they would around a ship wreck, and some undersea mammals like seals swim around them too.

But scientists have observed than there is no evidence of any wildlife colliding with the blades.

This is very good news, because birds do fly into wind turbines.

The blades do not rotate at slack water. Slack water is the time between tide movements. They only start up when the tide starts to move them. This moving energy is called kinetic energy.

The sea turbines have two blades, but can be much smaller than wind turbines because water density is over 800 times greater than air.

The electricity produced, is taken back through a cable called an export cable, and the power can then be fed into an electricity grid which serves homes and businesses. The downside of them is that they are more expensive to maintain than other forms of equipment that provide renewable energy.

An electricity grid holds electricity and makes it constantly available for customers to use.

You need a high tidal flow for turbines, so positioning them in the best places needs some thought and research.

We are very lucky that we have sea all around our country with some pretty strong tides to use.

lf you want to learn more about how tides work, check out Blog Post 13.

Hopefully, more and more sea turbines will be set up in the future around the world.

Some countries have some coastline and some have none at all. We call these countries landlocked countries.

Sea turbines are very useful to small islands and can give them locally-resourced energy. lf they buy electric cars, they don’t need to import fuel to run them either.

So now l am thinking about whether getting a sea turbine to service my lighthouse might be a good idea.

After all, l have a very large light l need to power every night!

Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!

Love and kisses

Salty Sam

heart

www.christina-sinclair.com

Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week

Bob: l dreamed that l was swimming in the ocean last night, but it was orange not blue.

Bill: Oh Bob! That was just a Fanta Sea!

Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.

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Picture Gallery

Wind turbines can be on land or sea

A wind farm

Water turbines

Different fixings

Water turbines

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desk THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

This week, Bill and Bob’s mum held the party she has every year in her shop to draw attention to the fact her Christmas stock has just arrived.

As well as handmade gifts from local craftsmen, there are beeswax candles and soaps made by Auntie Alice, jams and chutneys made by Auntie Alice, small, specialty cheeses made by Farmer Jenkins’s wife and some wreaths that Bill and Bob’s mum has made too.

There were already lots of pots of Auntie Alice’s honey on the shelves.

I helped her put decorations up because I am good at going up ladders; living in a lighthouse gives you a good head for heights.

Bill and Bob had the job of spraying artificial snow in the corners of the panes of the shop window. Their mum told them to be careful and not overdo it otherwise they would not be allowed to help again. She wanted a sprinkle of snow – not the whole window to be blocked out!

Lastly, we put fairy lights around the window – checking to see if they were working before and after we put them up. We put some on the tree we put up inside the shop too.

She asked the mayor to switch the lights on when he came to the party.

He is always the first to turn up for a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie!

Auntie Alice organized the nibbles, and Bill and Bob donned their white shirts and bow ties so they would look smart enough to take them round on trays.

I don’t think they particularly like dressing up in bow ties, but I told them that it could be worse – she could have dressed them up as elves.

I whispered it in their ears because I did not want their mum to hear what I said, in case it gave her ideas!