Extracts from the May-June 2003 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

4. Tidal Lagoon Push

The offshore tidal lagoon concept being promoted by the US company Tidal Electric for sites off the Welsh coast, won support from 56 MP’s who signed an Early Day Motion last Nov. It called the Houses attention to ‘the significant role that off shore tidal energy could play in this mix by utilising the enormous and entirely predictable power of the United Kingdom’s large tidal ranges; congratulates Tidal Electric on the development of a generator capable of producing commercial scale and cost-competitive amounts of renewable energy; notes that the technology has been used extensively in other countries and that its installations provide environmental benefits, including new habitats for marine wildlife; recognises also that there is widespread community support for its initial projects in Swansea Bay and North Wales; and calls on the Government to support the acquisition of consents and the detailed engineering required in order that private finance will then have the confidence to enter the market.’

Progress on winning political support for the tidal lagoon concept seems to have be slow so far, with the DTI evidently being reluctant to take it on board- maybe since its a US project (the ‘not invented here’ syndrome). See Technology in Renew 143

Tidal Power Everywhere

Yet more proposals for underwater tidal current generators have emerged. After a successful test of a single boat-mounted prototype in Milford Haven, Pemrokeshire based Tidal Hydraulic Generators Ltd has been awarded £1.6m by the DTI for an array of five 8 meter diameter turbines, possibly to be installed, after tests this summer, 40 metres down on the bed of the Severn estuary, between the two bridges. It will be attached to a gravity mounted frame about 80m square. Local environmentalists welcomed the idea in principle, on the assumption that it would have much less impact than the once planned tidal barrage across the estaury. Tony Harding from the local FoE group told the Bristol Evening Post (10/02) ‘it looks like an imaginative way to capture the power of the Severn,’ although he added ‘we are told this proposal would be neutral in terms of its impact on the environment but we would need reassurance that this would be the case’.

Meanwhile, the Stingray team should be getting back in the water soon after their successful test last autumn in the Shetlands and, as the Guardian reported (10/2/03) the University of Southampton’s sustainable energy research group is supporting work on Marine Current Turbines project at Lynmouth in Devon and has also been looking at Alderney. EU research has identified 106 potential sites for tidal power, 80% round the coasts of Britain. More in Renew 144.