While the power plant above looks more like a gorgeous get-away than a solution to man's energy needs, its benefits extend far beyond its beauty. As Reconstruct reports, the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon will use the rise and fall of ocean tides to generate enough renewable electricity to power 155,000 homes for 120 years!

Though not completed at present, when the structure is finished, it will produce enough electricity to displace more than a quarter million barrels of oil each year – while leaving virtually no carbon footprint.

Power plants have been generating electricity from the oceans' tides since 1966, but the Swansea Lagoon is the first to employ a radically new method…

How does it work? 

It's nearly six-mile-long barrier wall will enclose a huge amount of water in an artificial "tidal lagoon". This lagoon captures and holds seawater at high tide. As the tide goes out, water in the 4.5 square mile lagoon will be as much as 27 feet higher than the water outside its walls. This immense pressure will be routed through 26 turbines, flooding out to sea until the water level equalizes on both sides of the lagoon.

The flow is reversed at high tide, keeping the sea out of the lagoon until it reaches maximum height. Then water is let go, so it may rush through the turbines until it again fills up the lagoon.