Self-study activity:
Watch this AlJazeera English news clip and say whether the statements below are true or false.
The activity is suitable for Intermedio 2 students.
1 Money was the reason why the project failed in the past.
2 The new energy project is being built on the beach.
3 The project uses the power of water above the surface of the water to create energy.
4 The turbines look like airplanes.
5 At the moment 1,200 homes get power from the turbines.
6 The project doesn't receive any subsidies from the administration.
7 By 2020 the project will be economically viable.
8 It has been proved that the environment does not suffer with this type of energy.
9 Alice Cates’ family arrived in the area in the 1970's.
10 A hundred people have got a job thanks to this project.
You can read the transcript and check the answers below.
Trying to capture the power of the sea to light the shore. It was tried here 75 years ago by President Franklin D Roosevelt but the massive construction project in Eastport Maine failed early, after running way over budget.
Decades later there’s a new high tech approach. A 20 minute boat ride from Eastport, the first cimmercial tidal energy project in North America is in its final test phase. The tides here are huge, more than six meters in height.
We’re on an anchored barge at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. Now, it has the largest tidal movement of anywhere in the world. This is what it looks like when the tide is going out. Now, this project uses turbines below the surface of the water, harnessing this power and converting it into electricity.
The turbines are engineered so that they will always turn in the same way, whether the tide is rolling in or out. They are made from racing boat material and are shaped like airplane wings. The turbines power a generator creating electricity. Cables carry it on shore and directly into the power grid. In three years they hope to power 1200 homes.
Believe it or not there’s one moving part in this.
Chris Sauer says he can see light at the end of the tunnel for his startup company but there’s work ahead before profits will be made. Offsetting the 21 million dollar startup cost, 10 million came from the department of energy.
We are not economically viable yet, by 2020 we are gonna be we believe competitive with any new sources of power and that includes fossil fuels.
And other questions still have to be answered. The long term repercussions of the project are being studied, including the impact on marine life.
We need to look at the environmental effect and know how much energy we can get out of it. Then we can have the conversation with the community and as a society about whether we’re gonna develop this resource.
As for the economic impact, Eastport has seen better times and is hoping to feel the benefit. Alice Cates’ family arrived in the 1700s.
When I grew up we had 13 canneries along the waterfront here. We couldn’t get down the sidewalk on a Friday night.
But the local seafood industry collapsed, businesses left town and many residents went with them. Now this project is employing a hundred people so far.
One job here’s a lot of jobs. It really is and it’s been... they’ve been extremely good and it isn’t just in this community, it’s Lubec and it’s all over... I think 13 of the 16 Maine counties have some supply econnection into this company.
So once again Eastport looks to the sea for a lifeline, hoping to avoid the disappointment of seven decades ago and become a center for alternative energy.
Key:
1T 2F 3F 4F 5F 6F 7T 8F 9F 10T