Severn estuary could host tidal lagoon with new funding

Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporter

Ambitious plans to harness the tidal power of the Severn Estuary to make electricity are set to take another step forward this week.

The region’s political leaders are expected to forge ahead with developing the proposals when they meet at the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) committee on Friday, March 27.

They have been recommended to approve £1.3million for clean energy projects, including the world’s first tidal lagoon in the Bristol Channel in partnership with Cardiff Capital Region.

The Severn Estuary Commission, which brought together engineers, scientists, environmentalists, industrial figures and politicians, published a report 12 months ago recommending a lagoon as the best way to balance generating green energy with environmental and economic concerns, including commercial operations at the Port of Bristol.

Previous ideas that mostly involved a huge barrage between Bristol and South Wales have been repeatedly rejected or abandoned.

Ahead of Friday’s meeting, West of England metro mayor Helen Godwin said: “People across the West care deeply about our planet.

“Powering our present and our future with clean energy, supporting nature recovery, cutting pollution, and preparing for increasingly extreme weather are not nice-to-haves.

“These things are essential for our future, which is why our 10-year growth strategy has a green thread running through it.

“Seizing the opportunity offered by the Severn Estuary has long been talked about and together we are ambitious about delivering the first tidal lagoon there.

“The world’s second biggest tidal range can play a huge part in a greener future for people here in the West of England and beyond.”

The Labour mayor told Weca overview and scrutiny committee on Monday, March 23: “We have included clean energy as one of our five key growth sectors in the growth strategy and that enables us to make sure we’ve got resource that goes into promoting that sector, working with businesses that are in the main growing businesses in this space.

“We think we’ve got about 400 companies in the region that are focused on clean energy and we want to make sure they feel supported and able to grow because we expect this to be a significant growth sector.”

A huge amount of energy 

Severn Estuary Commission chairman Dr Andrew Garrard said last year that a tidal lagoon could generate at least two per cent of the country’s electricity every year and that while that did not sound like very much, it was a ‘huge amount of energy’.

He said a lagoon could operate for up to 120 years, compared with 30 for a typical power station or offshore wind farm, and 60 for Hinkley Point C in Somerset.

The Weca investment would progress the programme towards a commercial demonstration project to demonstrate its potential and evaluate environmental impacts.

If that proves successful, it could lead to a series of tidal lagoons in the Severn Estuary and elsewhere in the UK.

The £1.3million would also go towards reducing bills for low-income households through retrofitting and a telephone advice service, along with a range of other projects.

Weca committee is also asked to approve nearly £750,000 to work with the West of England Nature Partnership, produce the first regional Wildlife Index and State of Nature report, and develop a pipeline of other schemes supporting nature recovery.

And more than £200,000 would be invested the Avon Riversides 2100 strategy and flood protection schemes.