The ambitious plan to harness tidal power could generate 20,000 jobs, but concerns remain about the impact on wildlife
David Cameron has ordered ministers to consider backing a £30bn project to harness the tidal power of the Severn estuary, as the Government scrambles to find big infrastructure projects that could help kick-start growth.
The Prime Minister has asked Ed Davey, the Lib Dem Energy Secretary, and Oliver Letwin, the Tory policy chief, to look in detail at a new proposal for a barrage which, supporters claim, could limit the environmental impact on world-famous wildlife habitats.
With the potential to create 20,000 jobs, it is exactly the sort of big-ticket construction project that the coalition needs to find as George Osborne faces a growing clamour to change economic course.
Mr Davey is to consider the details of the Severn barrage plan. However, The Independent on Sunday has learnt that the Liberal Democrats, uneasy about the lack of growth, are to call on the Chancellor to authorise additional public borrowing to fund a wide range of green-energy schemes. Mr Davey’s aide, Duncan Hames, has drawn up a policy to this effect.
The idea of a Severn barrage was rejected by the coalition in 2010, which argued there was “no strategic case at this time for public funding of a scheme to generate energy in the Severn estuary”.
But Mr Cameron has been persuaded that the long-debated idea of a barrage is worth reconsidering, because the consortium Corlan Hafren says no state funding is required. Instead, investors from Kuwait, Qatar and a number of sovereign wealth funds have expressed support for the idea. However, the project would rely on green energy subsidies paid to wind and solar plants, which add to customers’ bills.
Securing government support is crucial, because time would need to be found for legislation to pass through Parliament. Peter Hain, the former Labour cabinet minister, quit his frontbench role earlier this year to champion the project. He has offered to pilot a bill through the Commons, which Mr Cameron has agreed to study.
“Tidal power is the only lunar energy source,” Mr Hain said in a letter to Mr Cameron. “Tides can be forecast for years in advance, and therefore tidal power is highly predictable and consistent.”
“The Independent on Sunday has learnt that the Liberal Democrats, uneasy about the lack of growth, are to call on the Chancellor to authorise additional public borrowing to fund a wide range of green-energy schemes.”
These Keynesians persist in believing that taking a bucket of water from the deep end of the pool and pouring in the shallow end will raise the water level in the shallow end.
Amen, Gamecock. And not to mention the hubris of shackling the populous with artificially expensive, taxpayer-subsidized power via the foreign investors. If I’m forced to pay a subsidy, at least let it be into my own, darned country — not a ferner!!
Hain claims that tides are predictable. True, if ‘tide’ is defined simply as the effect of astronomical objects on sea water levels. BUT NOT TRUE if ‘tide’ is defined as the change in sea water level. This is because water levels are determined not only by astronomical events, but by weather, internal oceanic currents and local conditions such as interactions between surges. It is this kind of simplistic ignorance that has led the country into investing and wasting vast resources on useless wind farms and which will lead the country into economic ruin as energy bills soar.
Hain is not correct when he claims that tides are predictable. Water levels depend not only on predictable astronomical events but on weather, tidal surges and changes in oceanic currents. It was this kind of simplistic utterance that led the country to waste resources on useless wind farms.