Richard Zappia sent a message to Ralph Izzo that said:
Good Day, I have been an Electrician for over 45 years and a good Stewart of the seas, as you know that Long Island is subject to the rise and fall of the ocean tides which rise and fall about 10' daily. The rise and fall of our bays is about 3'. So as the ocean rises and meets the level of the bays the flow continues into the bays. When the level of the ocean is at it's highest point and starts to ebb the flow continues until the level reaches the level of the bay then the flow reverses. When the ocean gets to it's lowest point the flow out of the bay continues until the ocean tide rise to the level of the bay and reverses again. This process happens twice a day.
You already have a proven generating system with the wind farm system and it can be adapted to a water system. If a tube was to be installed under Fire Island with an impeller that would turn with water flow. There is only so much water that the inlets allow to flow so there is always a difference of water levels between the ocean and the bays. This process happen day or night, rain or shine, with good weather or bad, so you have the power source 23 hours a day.
I would like to discuss this further with you and your engineers to make this system work. As you know that the Tri-State area is one of the busiest in the country and could be subject to Marine damage. Having these generators mounted on dry land are a lot easier to build and maintain and the can be hidden inside a building. I don't know why this hasn't been thought of sooner, take a look at the Niagara generating system it is the same type except you only have one direction of water flow where here you would have two directions of flow.
I hope to discuss this with you and your engineers further.
I thank you for your time.
Richard Zappia
