One project in the Bay of Fundy that has been there for many years has a different technology, as I understand it. The tides come in and the project actually dams up the ocean water, and then it releases the water and creates the energy. It's not as efficient as some of the newer technologies that are coming on stream. Also, I understand it's not that environmentally strong. In fact, I talked to some of the people who were responsible for the environmental approval processes, and they said this would never get through an approval process because of the silting problems.
The latest technology that's coming on stream now is in tidal turbines. I actually went out to Race Rocks. They drilled 36 metres down into the rock and they grouted in a 36-inch-diameter column. It's in 20 metres of water and extends 7 metres up, and then there's a 5-metre-diameter turbine that's underwater. Catherine would know this, coming from Vancouver Island. It's in one of the most ecologically sensitive areas you could imagine, and the support that it has is phenomenal.
It's quite a new technology, and it's relatively economical. It's in almost the same range as wind, but it's based on tidal currents as opposed to the rise in the tides. These are in three-knot currents. The advantage there is that they're able to harness the energy going both in and out as the currents move. It's very efficient, very predictable energy, since the tide obviously moves twice a day.
I talked to the promoters who are doing this project earlier today. They were here from Pearson College, which is a partner in this project. They are producing electricity now and will be able to remove all the diesel generation on the Race Rocks research facility. It's quite exciting, and they believe they'll be able to do this in a larger scale in a commercial application in the near future.
It's something that I would encourage you to look into, because it's fascinating technology. The amount of energy in our oceans is just enormous, so if we have an ability to harness it in a way that does not leave any type of environmental footprint, that's quite exciting.