Severn Barage Scrapped

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So, the controversial Severn Barrage, which would have supplied nearly 5% of the country's electricity, is to be scrapped, according to a report today via the BBC new site.

Secretary of State for Energy Chris Huhne is believed to have decided to cancel the project because of its high construction cost - around £20 billion - and will instead signal that nuclear power will receive more support in attempts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Locally, this will see increased work carried out at Oldbury and Sizewell B nuclear power stations in the coming years.

The planned barrage would have linked Brean Down near Weston Super Mare with Lavernock Point near Cardiff, using tidal range technology. As previously reported on Trym Tales, this approach involves creating a barrier which is effectively a hydroelectric dam. The incoming tide is allowed to pass through the barrier and then held back behind it as the tide recedes. At or around low tide, the waters behind the barrage are released in a controlled way and passed through a series of turbines, generating electricity.

The proposed Barrage was one of ten initial proposals for generating tidal energy from the River Severn - later reduced to five. The tidal range in the Severn is approximately 14 metres, making the estuary one of the prime candidates on the planet for the large-scale introduction of this form of renewable technology. Studies into the feasibility of tidal energy technologies have also been carried out around Orkney.

The loss of upstream habitat on the Severn was one of the reasons that the planned barrage was opposed by some local environmentalists. Northavon MP Steve Webb was one of a number of local MP's and Welsh Assembly members who were opposed to the Barrage, advocating instead a smaller barrage close to the Severn Bridge Crossing.








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Related articles

• Severn barrage 'to be scrapped' (bbc.co.uk)
• Huhne drops Severn barrage to invest in wind power (independent.co.uk)
• Britain's energy policy is in crisis (telegraph.co.uk)

That's a Lot of Plastic

I couldn't believe it.

The Somerfield shop and petrol station on Falcondale Road claims that in the last 12 months it gave away 434,000 free plastic bags to customers.

I nearly dropped my discounted croissant when I read that notice in the window and as I started to multiply that statistic by the number of supermarkets in Bristol and then the UK....

It's obviously going to save Somerfieled money if they don't give them away in the future, but the environmental case for using only reusable bags is surely overwhelming.

China has done it - and claims to have reduced oil consumption ( a key element in bag production) by 1.6 million tonnes.

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Severn Tidal Power - Latest Developments

The publication of the interim report by the Sustainable Development Commission on options for tidal power in the Severn (reported on previously on this blog) has resulted in the original list of ten projects (shown above) being reduced to five.

The five proposals for harnessing the tidal power of the river all involve tidal range technologies. This involves creating a barrier which is effectively a hydroelectric dam. The incoming tide is allowed to pass through the barrier and then held back behind it as the tide recedes. At or around low tide, the waters behind the barrage are released in a controlled way and passed through a series of turbines, generating electricity.

While barrages are walls built right across a river, lagoons are formed by irregular-shaped walls that have their two ends on the same side of the river as each other.


The five proposals, all of which use this tidal range technology, are as follows:

1. The Cardiff to Weston Barrage. This barrage would cost an estimated £19-22 billion and would produce approximately 4.8% of the UK's current electricity needs. As well as the cost, this barrage would impact on migratory fish in the Severn and would result in the destruction of 20,000 hectres of wildfowl habitat upstream, much of it internationally protected.
   
2. The Inner Barrage. Located near the Severn Road Bridge, this barrage would be identical in function to the one above, but being smaller would generate less electricity (1% of UK output) and cause less destruction of habitat (5,000 hectres).
3. The Beachley Barrage would be upstream of the point at which the River Wye enters the Severn, producing less energy than either of the above proposals and creating less habitat destruction. The price tag is estimated at £2.5 billion.
   
4. The Fleming Lagoon would have one end at Newport and the other at or near the Severn crossings. It would result in considerable inter-tidal habitat loss and would cost £4.9 billion.
   
5. Bridgewater Bay Lagoon. Stretching from Hinckley Point to Weston-super-Mare, this lagoon would be similar to the one above and would have similar cost and environmental impact.

The full text of the SDC report can be found here while a shorter summary for simple west country folk like me can be seen here. Once the information has been read and inwardly digested, members of the public are invited to respond and express their views before April 23rd 2009.

Tidal movements in the Severn Estuary are among the largest in the world, with water levels rising up to 14 metres from low to high tide.

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