14/10/2004

Friends of the Earth Cymru says that significant quantities of low cost renewable electricity generated by tidal lagoons could give the south and north Wales economies a competitive edge by 2020.

The group is calling on the Welsh Assembly Government to reassess their unsupportive view of tidal lagoon technology following a positive report from a leading engineering consultancy.

The report, by independent consultants WS Atkins Engineering confirms that the generation of electricity by tidal lagoons as proposed by the company Tidal Electric Ltd is viable. The report also confirms that a proposed lagoon scheme in Swansea Bay could generate electricity cost-competitively.

Friends of the Earth Cymru says that the Assembly Government should now support Tidal Electric Ltd in the company's vision to generate electricity from the large tidal energy resources of the Severn Estuary.

The group say that potential investors in the proposed lagoon scheme in Swansea Bay, impounding two square miles of sea to supply the annual consumption of 30,000 people, will be looking to the Assembly and WDA for their view of the technology. If the Assembly and the Agency are unsupportive then that cannot help investor confidence.

Tidal Electric have said that Assembly acknowledgement would be a useful starting point and some funding for an environmental impact assessment, of what could still be the world's first lagoon scheme, in Swansea Bay would greatly help. A scheme may be built in China. The Assembly Government has so far been non committal because it has been briefed by the DTI and WDA that Tidal Electric Ltd have underestimated the costs of their technology.

Friends of the Earth Cymru points out that the DTI and WDA briefings have missed the point that the cost of electricity generated by lagoons is dependent on the size of the scheme, the tidal range and that the economies of scale are significant. The DTI briefing appears to draw on the generation cost of a tiny scheme proposed by Tidal Electric to supply a small fishing community in a remote area of Alaska. Electricity from such a tiny scheme in a low 3 metre tidal area is going to cost far more than very large lagoons in the globally high 13 metre tidal range of the Severn Estuary.

Neil Crumpton, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth Cymru, said:

" The WS Atkins report should persuade the Assembly Government that the very high tidal range in the Severn Estuary and Liverpool Bay could be used to generate potentially very large quantities of low-cost renewable electricity by 2015 or 2020. Several lagoon schemes in the optimum areas of the Severn Estuary alone, if assessed as environmentally benign, could generate enough electricity to supply three and a half million people or about 6% of UK electricity demand.

" What's more, due to the economies of scale, the generation costs of large lagoons would be below three pence and as low as two pence per kilowatt hour. This would be on par or lower than the cost of electricity generated by gas and would give the south Wales economy a significant commercial edge globally in an environmentally conscious world. Similarly, a large scheme in Liverpool Bay could do the same for north Wales. "

The campaigners are calling on economic development minister Andrew Davies AM to highlight the potential of the technology where it is assessed to be environmentally benign.

Source:	Friends of the Earth Cymru
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