UK Tidal Power Plan Sinks on Cash and Environmental Costs

[FBaggins]

A plan to produce energy using tidal power in an estuary between western England and Wales is in doubt after an important lawmaker body Monday said it was too expensive to be viable.

The scheme could have produced enough energy from a renewable, indigenous source to supply 5% of the U.K.'s electricity needs, it had been suggested, but a report issued by the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee found the scheme too flawed to proceed.

The Severn Estuary tidal barrage was proposed by closely-held Hafren Power Ltd. in August 2012. The company said the 25-billion-pound ($38.89 billion) project would be funded entirely from private sources.

However, the inquiry found that in practice it would need governmental support "over a 30-year period" through Contracts for Difference, which aim to ensure a constant price to energy producers by ironing out fluctuations in generating capacity and demand. A CFD is an agreement, in this case between the government and the producer, which allows for top-up payments to be made if the price of energy changes.


http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130610-705008.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[kristopher]

1. I don't think there is anything wrong with this project...

...except timing. The value it offers isn't at a premium yet. It can't compete with established thermal and and under the present policy framework there is (compared to a high penetration renewable grid) little added value assigned for its low carbon and load following ability.
In 20 years the economics for it will be far more favorable IMO.

[FBaggins]

2. Agreed

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. There are still environmental questions

It's a proposal for a barrage across the entire estuary (18km wide), so would have significant effect on anything upstream:

Peter Jones, RSPB Cymru Conservation Policy Officer: Sustainability, said: “These findings confirm everything that the RSPB has been saying about barrage proposals in the Severn. We should now move on to consider seriously alternative ways of harnessing tidal energy without doing unacceptable harm to the habitats and wildlife that it supports.”

At a recent conference at UWE Bristol, organised by RSPB, Regen SW and Bristol Port, strong arguments were put forward to suggest the best way to get a sustainable Severn is to adopt a “mixed technology” approach to capturing energy. The suggestion is that a step-by-step approach to the delivery of smaller wave, wind and tidal lagoon projects could deliver large amounts of renewable energy with minimum impact on the environment.

Kate Jennings, RSPB Head of Site Conservation Policy, said: “There’s a huge prize to be won. But to get where we need to be, we need government and key stakeholders in England and Wales - engineers, environmentalists, developers, businesses – working together. The RSPB will be pushing hard to make this happen.”

Friends of the Earth’s South West Campaigner Mike Birkin added: “This report should bang the final in the coffin for the current Severn Barrage proposal. The scheme is not cost effective and has little public support.

http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/national-news/123901-mps-reject-severn-tidal-barrage-plans.html

To see where it would have been - from point 'A' (Lavernock Point) to Brean: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Lavernock+Point+&hl=en&ll=51.406059,-3.175049&spn=0.458307,1.352692&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=7.102588,21.643066&t=h&hq=Lavernock+Point&z=10

[FBaggins]

4. There always are

But there's also the larger environmental problem and they're supposed to be trying to dramatically reduce their carbon emissions.

The UK doesn't have the option of going with traditional large-scale hydro plants and (as Kris pointed out), hydro serves such a critical niche in a future with much higher penetration of more variable renewables (and of course nuclear... though we won't make him say that )

Large-scale hydro has environmental issues here as well... but the benefits far outweigh them.

I think the real stumbling block here is the massive capital outlay when other options are cheaper and money is tight.