The future for tidal energy is a vast number of “tidal farms”, located in areas of high tide, or in deep ocean, floating or on the ocean bottom, to harvest energy and pump it directly into the energy grid if the farm is close in, or store it in objects similar to batteries, but with exponentially higher energy storing capacities. These deep-sea farms will need to be visited somewhere between once a week to once a month, depending on the storage capability of the batteries. The farms will be relatively low maintenance, with those being visited once a week needing no more maintenance than what can be offered when the batteries are replaced, while those with one month's worth of charge would perhaps require a visit every week or two to check up on the turbines, checking them for wear and tear. The turbines will be built with strong enough materials that monitoring them electronically will allow for catching any major issues quickly, and thus natural breakdown will be manageable. There are several components to this future vision, among them materials used to build turbines, the location of the farms, and the environmental impact of the farms.

     The most common materials used in making turbine blades are steel, wood epoxy, or glass or carbon fiber reinforced plastic. These are chosen for their lightweight but durable nature. Steel is longest lasting, and can take the most stress, while reinforced plastic is used for most turbines. Wood epoxy is used only in smaller-scale turbines that are not introduced to high speeds. The most common materials for the hub of the turbine blades are aluminum and copper, along with steel. Steel is far and above the most used material when constructing the hub, but aluminum and copper have been used, being lighter weight. Steel is necessary for any midrange-large turbine, as it is dense enough to undergo the stresses high-speed turbines take. The towers are almost universally steel, but there are a few that have used pre-stressed concrete or aluminum to construct the towers. The towers undergo similar stress to the blades, though not in as great quantities, and must be durably built. Corrosion is a large worry when constructing tidal turbines. Turbines spend all the time underwater, and are not brought up unless they are to be repaired. This means the materials used to construct the turbine itself must be corrosion-resistant, and the turbine itself must be tightly sealed so as to not let water into the weaker, more fragile insides. The sealing is done fairly easily with the use of metal welding, so the real concern is that of making the material resistant to corrosion in the first place. There are some metals that are corrosion resistant, such as stainless steel, or similar derivatives, but these are far more expensive than most metals used. The most common method of stopping corrosion is sealing the metal with a watertight coat of corrosion resistant paint. This works well, but does not last forever, and one small chip in the paint can undo all that work. In case this does happen, corrosion inhibitors can be installed inside of the turbine, to prevent the water from damaging the unprotected insides. However, even with these stopgaps, corrosion will still eventually happen. The longest lasting solution is to build the turbine out of material that will not corrode, or will only corrode slowly. This would either involve use of expensive non-corrosive metals, or else use of a compound or polymer that would not be able to stand levels of stress that metal can. The one solution may lie in another future technology, carbon fibers. Carbon fibers are intensely thin strands of pure carbon, stronger than most metals, and completely unaffected by corrosion. Right now, carbon fiber is expensive to make, and it would be needed in large quantities, but as production increases and prices go down, carbon fiber structures could be a possible option. A more viable, present option would be the use of carbon-fiber reinforced metal. This metal, most likely steel, would have an incorruptible, strong support system that not only would stand strong after a hole was punched in it by sea water, but would also be more likely to stand up to the punishing strength of the tides.

     Tidal turbines, unlike barrages, are best suited to areas of high tidal movement. Barrages need to be able to contain the tide, and thus must be situated on the border of water and land, while turbines are better suited in an area with a high tidal range. The tidal range is the difference in feet between the ending points of high and low tide. The minimum range for turbines is 6 meters (15 feet), but the best locations, such as the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, have tidal ranges of up to 16 meters (40 ft). Another optimal location would be the Bristol Channel, which has the second highest range in the world, 15 meters (37.5 ft). There are many optimal locations in Canada besides the Bay of Fundy, like Leaf Lake (37 ft) or Hopes Advance Bay (27 ft). Argentina has one area with a large tidal range, the Rio Gallegos Reduction Beacon (29 ft). And there are many possible locations in Britain, such as Burnham, Parrett River, England (29.9 ft) or Weston-Super-Mare, Bristol Channel (29.5 ft). Some other locations include several areas off the coast of Australia.

     For deep-sea turbines, tidal currents are the deciding factor, rather than tidal range. This is a boon to some nations, however. 93% of Britain's tidal energy resources are located at a depth of 30 meters (75 ft) or more, which would require deep-sea tidal farms. Installing tidal farms in any deep-sea current would be a viable option, since the energy-storing “batteries” will make location largely irrelevant.

     To obtain continuous power generation, two basins can be used.  One basin would be placed at high tide, while the other would be placed at low tide.  A turbine would then be placed in between the two basins and electricity will be generated continuously. 

Environmental Impact: Tidal barrages are fairly damaging to the ecosystem. For instance, barrages can block navigation. The barrage blocks the egress to the ocean. Locks can be installed, as they are in France.  The lock allows some traffic, but it is a slow and costly alternative to free access to the ocean.  Barrages dam natural water ways, where marine animals swim in and out constantly. Furthermore, the constant shifting between full water and dry land, as opposed to the more gradual movement of tides, means that the wetland area that exists in a tidal region is destroyed when the barrage is created, destroying the habitat for many creatures living there. On the other hand, tidal turbines have little to no effect on the environment. They do not obstruct migration of animals, they don't affect the tides themselves in any way, and they are low and unobtrusive enough that they don't pose any danger to swimmers that cannot be easily avoided. The only real drawback is to marine animals, as while the turbines turn fairly slowly for the most part, the ends of blades of larger turbines can turn faster, up to 15 ft per second, which is enough to kill small fish and injure larger animals. There may be a solution to this, however. Scientists have been using sound frequencies to keep fish away from power plant areas, but this technology could be easily modified to be used in the turbines, and the strength of the frequency would not have to be great as those used for repelling fish from power plants, as the fish only need to be kept away from turbine blades themselves, not an entire area. 

     There are also some positive impacts from the usage of tidal generators.  Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by utilizing tidal power in place of fossil fuels.  Traffic or rail bridges can be built on tidal barrages and can improve transport across estuaries and the lakes created by permanently flooding estuaries can be used for aquaculture or recreation.