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Liam O'Keeffe

Surely it’s time to build Severn Barrage

The UK desperately needs new low carbon energy. Nuclear's costs are rising and no one has really cracked its long term waste management. So it must be tidal power and especially Severn Barrage's time; surely, says Liam O'Keefe.

As Britain continues to transform its power generation capacity away from fossil fuels towards clean, low carbon technology, one resource appears to have been overlooked. To date the emphasis has been on wind, solar and more controversially biomass.

"Much of the cost will be in the substantial civil engineering works that will be required to build the barrage but, unlike nuclear, the skill and expertise will come from British engineers and engineering companies. Having given up on our nuclear industry, perhaps now is the time to take the lead in tidal."

The Government is also hoping to re-build its nuclear capacity but this time relying on foreign companies to provide the expertise at significant cost and with uncertainty about the reliability of the proposed technology.

Nuclear is in any case not without controversy and whilst it may be low carbon, it creates long term legacy problems associated with decommissioning and waste storage that are of real concern and may not have been fully factored into the economics.

However, there is one clean, domestic resource that has been overlooked for too long: tidal power. The Severn estuary has the second highest tidal range in the world and this could be harnessed to provide up to 10% of the country’s total electrical needs.

Electricity generated in this manner would be low carbon, reliable and relatively cheap to produce in terms of its operating costs. An ancillary benefit is that it could also provide protection to the estuary from the storm surges and bad weather that we experienced last year thus solving two problems in one go.

It would also provide a long term solution to the country’s energy needs as a barrage would have a design life of the order of 120 years. This compares to half that for nuclear and perhaps 20 years for wind and solar.

Those factors alone should be enough to convince even the most sceptical politician of the merits of the Severn Barrage but there’s so much more. It would use proven technology (the La Rance tidal barrage in France has been in commercial operation since 1966) and would provide predictable electricity, which is not the case with intermittent wind and solar.

Not only that, it also offers a significant degree of storage that could be used to help balance the grid. This will become of increasing importance as more renewable energy sources are connected to the grid. 

Finally, much of the cost will be in the substantial civil engineering works that will be required to build the barrage but, unlike nuclear, the skill and expertise will come from British engineers and engineering companies. Having given up on our nuclear industry, perhaps now is the time to take the lead in tidal. If we are truly committed to creating a sustainable economy then building the Severn Barrage is an absolute no-brainer for Britain!

Liam O’Keeffe is a Visiting Professor at London Metropolitan University with 25 year’s experience in financing global infrastructure projects