Last call for Swansea Tidal Lagoon

The Chancellor's Autumn statement next Wednesday November 23 may decide future of Swansea Bay Lagoon. Here's a response to a piece by Observer science-editor Robin McKie last summer, suggesting that only nuclear energy could fill the energy gap)

 

Observer 07.08.2016

'Big Issue – Hinckley Point'

Fusion or fission, nuclear power is not the only reliable alternative to fossil fuel (Robin McKie 'If not nuclear power then what?'). Sunshine, wind and waves vary with the weather, but tides still rise and fall and the flow can be safely harnessed in and out.

With nuclear fission not yet in sight, this simpler seapower could be a better bet than rejigged EPR at Hinkley Point C. In his Aurumn budget last year, George Osborne flagged up the prospect of a tidal lagoon power project in Swansea bay, only to put it out for review when the price of oil and gas came down..

This much we may already know. The start-up cost for Swansea Bay stands at £1.3 billion as against £18 billion for Hinkley Point. The planned productive life of a lagoon is more than 100 years compared with 60 years for Hinkley Point C.  Over the years, with rising output from larger lagoons around the coast, tidal input to the national grid could match Hinkley nuclear in cost and quantity.

The modest Swansea Bay venture is set to pilot a fleet of bigger enclosures with two-way turbine arrays to harness an exceptional tidal range, extending from Welsh and British coasts across the channel to France. The technology of lagoon-wall dykes and low-speed turbines is relatively simple. Lagoons carry no heavy overhang of radio-active waste and decommissioning. They are most unlikely to blow up and In case of major breakdown the damage would not be insupportable.

A government decision on funding for Swansea Bay now awaits the outcome of an independent review later this year. With luck and common sense, this could be ready in time for Philip Hammond to give the go-ahead for this first tidal lagoon in his first Autumn budget, opening the way to a wider raft of private investment and jobs along a supply chain in waiting.Better a Swansea sprat to catch an eco-friendly mackerel than a dubious go-for-broke upstream in Somerset. With Swansea Bay as my back yard, would say that, wouldn't I. Though it doesn't have to be either/or.

Greg Wilkinson

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/06/the-big-issue-nuclear-power-tidal-power-hinkley