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Tidal lagoons 'could ensure UK power supplies' Swansea Bay tidal lagoon backed by government review
(about 4 hours later)
Tidal lagoons could play an important role in ensuring secure power supplies, according to a former energy minister who has led a review into the technology. A new generation of tidal lagoons that could provide the UK with reliable and clean electricity has been enthusiastically backed by a government-commissioned review.
Charles Hendry was speaking before the publication of his independent review, commissioned by the government, into the potential for tidal lagoon energy in the UK. The report by a former energy minister urged the government to move to the final stages of negotiations with Tidal Lagoon Power, the company that wants to build a small trial lagoon in Swansea Bay and five larger ones later.
Support by the review for the renewable energy technology will be a boost to efforts to get a “world first” project off the ground to harness the power of the tides in the Severn estuary by building a lagoon in Swansea Bay. Environmental groups, engineers and investors welcomed Charles Hendry’s verdict, although some conservationists raised concerns over the local impact on birds and fish and one expert raised concerns over costs.
The assessment, commissioned last year amid negotiations on the Swansea Bay project, has looked into whether lagoons represent value for money and how they could contribute to the UK’s energy mix in the most effective way. But Hendry said he believed the evidence was clear that tidal lagoons could be cost-effective and affordable.
Hendry told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We know it absolutely works. One of the great advantages is it is completely predictable for all time to come. “I would strongly caution against ruling out tidal lagoons because of the hopes of other cheaper alternatives being available in the future.”
“We know exactly when the spring tides and neap tides are going to be every single day for the rest of time and so, in terms of meeting security of supply, lagoons can play an important role.” He suggested the Swansea “pathfinder” lagoon would cost households around 30p each a year over the first 30 years, with the five proposed full-scale lagoons each adding less than 50p over the first 60 years. Analysts said that if 10 large lagoons were built by 2030, it would add £8 to £9 to the average annual household energy bill.
Renewable energy firm Tidal Lagoon Power wants subsidies for a £1.3bn scheme to build the world’s first lagoon power plant in Swansea Bay. While the report concluded Swansea would be a “no regrets option”, it said the government should wait until that pilot project was complete before green-lighting a series of large-scale lagoons.
The lagoon would involve a U-shaped breakwater built out from the coast, with a bank of turbines turned by water which would harness the rise and fall of the tides to generate renewable electricity. Hendry’s review was far more positive than many expected when it was commissioned by the government last February, when appetite for tidal power seemed to be cooling. But it is still far from clear whether Tidal Lagoon Power will start construction in Swansea in 2018 as it hopes.
While the government has expressed backing for lagoons, former prime minister David Cameron said his enthusiasm had been “reduced” by the costs, with much higher subsidies than nuclear or offshore wind mooted at one stage. Negotiations on a guaranteed price for the electricity the lagoon would generate are still ongoing with the government. The exact figure is expected to be similar to the £92.50 per megawatt hour agreed for the Hinkley C nuclear power station, but over as many as 90 years rather than the 35-year Hinkley deal.
Tidal Lagoon Power now says the Swansea Bay scheme would require only the rate of bill-payer support currently offered to nuclear, and because the project was small it would cost households as little as 20p to 30p on average. “As a pathfinder, as a trial to see it works, yes I think it’s a sensible thing to do [on cost],” said John Feddersen, CEO of analysts Aurora Energy Research. The group said that if 10 lagoons were built in the UK by 2030, they would provide 10% of the UK power generation and cut carbon emissions by 36%.
It would also generate thousands of jobs and boost the Welsh economy, while supplying predictable, clean electricity for 155,000 homes for 120 years. WWF said tidal power had “considerable potential for generating clean electricity” and Greenpeace hailed the Swansea project as “an opportunity to lead in generating clean power from Britain’s tides”.
Hendry said he had assessed how expensive the project was by spreading the cost of the subsidies over the lifetime of the project. Dr Athanasios Angeloudis, at the department of earth science and engineering at Imperial College London, said: “The UK is blessed with some of the largest tidal energy resources in the world and this outcome should be seen as a landmark step towards making the first significant contribution to the national electricity mix from this sustainable energy source.”
“If you look at it over the cost of that 120 years then you get a very much lower figure than almost any other source of power generation,” he said. But the Wildlife Trusts Wales, which manages more than 200 nature reserves, said it had concerns over the local ecological impact of Swansea and the five other lagoons. The Policy Exchange thinktank, meanwhile, said it would be a folly for government to go ahead with the technology, arguing it was too expensive.
Tidal Lagoon Power claims the Swansea Bay scheme would be a proof-of-concept project opening the way for a series of lagoons around the coast, costing less due to economies of scale and meeting 8% of the country’s power needs for 120 years.
Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, Doug Parr, said tidal lagoon energy was the most reliable source of renewable energy for the UK and the Swansea Bay project was an opportunity to generate clean power from the tides.
He said: “Up to now, cost has been considered a barrier but the Hendry report suggests that tidal lagoons can potentially play a cost-effective role in the UK energy mix.
“And the government should get on with it because it could be the first of a wave of tidal lagoons across the UK, and even internationally. So we can lead the world in providing a new, renewable innovation to meet our clean energy needs.”
But some conservation groups have raised concerns about going ahead with a series of lagoons before the impacts of the Swansea scheme on wildlife are assessed.