how can power plants utilize tides?

Answer 1

There is a good discussion on this topic at Wikipedia, the free, online encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

There are tital power plants in operation, as quoted from this site:
"Operating tidal power schemes

* The first tidal power station was the Rance tidal power plant built over a period of 6 years from 1960 to 1966 at La Rance, France ([2]). It has 240MW installed capacity.
* The first (and only) tidal power site in North America is the Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia Generating Station, which opened in 1984 on an inlet of the Bay of Fundy[3]. It has 20MW installed capacity.
* A small project was built by the Soviet Union at Kislaya Guba on the Barents Sea. It has 0.5MW installed capacity.
* China has apparently developed several small tidal power projects and one large facility in Jiangxia.
* China is also developing a tidal lagoon ([near the mouth of the Yalu][4])
* Scotland has committed to having 18% of its power from green sources by 2010, including 10% from a tidal generator. The British government says this will replace one huge fossil fueled power station. [5]
* South African energy parastatal Eskom is investigating using the Mozambique Current to generate power off the cost of KwaZulu Natal. Because the continental shelf is near to land it may be possible to generate electricity by tapping into the fast flowing Mozambique current.Independent Online Article"

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

While almost everything seems possible in this world, why not?
If you define 'power plants' as a device that generates energy, and 'tides' as currents of water, we already have hydroelectric generators in place, which uses the kinetic energy of rushing water to turn turbines, and made into steam to provide energy and so on.

Hope this helps=)

Answer 3

an identical way as Hydro-electric flowers do, with the help of using flowing water to push turbines, that spin turbines. this works superb in super tributaries that have get entry to to ocean bypass, like long island's east river.