Severn barrage ‘too expensive’ – report

www.environmental-finance.com/
London, 12 June:

A planned £15 billion ($29 billion) tidal-power barrage across the Severn Estuary is too expensive and the bill should not be footed by the UK taxpayer, according to a report commissioned by 10 environment groups. The 10-mile-long barrage would stretch between Wales and Somerset, and could generate 17 billion kilowatt hours of renewable power a year, providing up to 4.5% of likely electricity demand in the UK. But European consultancy Frontier Economics concluded that the same amount of renewable power could be generated using cheaper technologies.

The project was first proposed in 1981, by the Severn Tidal Power Group, a consortium which included Balfour Beatty. The plan never took off, and a report last year by the UK's Sustainable Development Commission said that the state should fund and run the barrage. However, Matthew Bell, author of the Frontier Economics report, said: "It is hard to think of reasons for the public sector to build or operate a barrage which would not be equally applicable to many other projects and assets that sit in the private sector.

"Not only is the private sector more than able to finance a scheme of this scale but, even using the most conservative estimates of costs, the barrage is one of the most expensive options for clean energy generation there is." Morgan Parry, head of WWF Cymru, added: "This report concludes quite clearly that government support for the Severn barrage is not justified.

Whereas we would welcome government intervention to improve the infrastructure of renewable energy supply, financial support for a redundant and highly damaging technology like a barrage is not the way to do it." Graham Wynne, chief executive of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "There are good reasons for trying to harness the energy potential of the Severn estuary. But the estuary is truly exceptional for its ecological value."