Kees Hulsbergen

Kees Hulsbergen is a Dutch coastal engineer who, together with fellow engineer Rob Steijn, invented and patented the concept of dynamic tidal power in 1997. The concept is a long dam-like structure built out from the coast at right angles, sometimes with a barrier parallel to the coast at its far end to form a large T shape. The dam interferes with the tidal waves that run along the coast and creates differences in water level on its two sides, and those differences drive a series of bi-directional turbines installed in the dam. Coastal tidal waves of this kind are common in places such as China, Korea and the United Kingdom, and the technology remains untried.