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UK Government ignores best option for Severn tidal power
26 January 2009
Friends of the Earth has reacted angrily to the exclusion today (Monday 26 January 2009) of large offshore tidal lagoons from a shortlist of potential schemes to harness the tidal power of the Severn estuary.
The environmental campaign group believes that tidal lagoons are the most viable option for delivering large amounts of green electricity - and that they could deliver it more quickly, cheaply and with less of an environmental impact than the Severn barrage.
Friends of the Earth Cymru Director Gordon James said:
"Offshore tidal lagoons offer the best option for harnessing the huge renewable energy potential of the Severn Estuary - their exclusion from the Government's short list is utterly incomprehensible and raises serious concerns about the consultation process."
"The development of tidal lagoons would have delivered huge quantities of green power more cheaply and quickly than a barrage, and with less impact on the environment."
"Ministers must abandon their fixation with the Severn barrage and invest in more effective and less damaging alternatives instead."
Notes:
1. Friends of the Earth Cymru has been long convinced that tidal lagoons offer a more practical and cost-effective, and less environmentally damaging, means of harnessing the Severn's huge tidal power than large barrage alternatives.
2. A tidal lagoon is basically a rock-walled impoundment, which would look like an oval or similar shaped breakwater enclosing an area of shallow coastal sea forming a 'lagoon'. Tidal water is trapped and released from the lagoon through electricity generating water turbines built within the impoundment walls. The lagoon concept has been peer reviewed and considered technically feasible and economically attractive. www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/severn_barrage_lagoons.pdf
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Feb 2009
