As the environmentalists struggle with wind power pros and cons, a similar debate over UK’s Severn Estuary tidal power proposal is taking place.
The Earth Techling news portal writes that the project was seen as feasible and likely to produce low-cost energy. On the other hand, it was determined to be the most environmentally risky.
The debate was initiated in May, when Peter Hain quit the Parliament and gave up his secretary position in order to represent a private consortium, which is trying to revive a longstanding proposal to build a Cardin-Weston Severn barrage.
The Save Our Severn campaigning group said it wasn’t against drawing energy out of the estuary, but it recommended less invasive tidal stream generation. However, the government said such technology was too new and uncertain to move forward with.
After the government studied several proposals, the one identified as the best was for a barrage across the channel from Cardiff to Weston, 10 miles wide and worth USD 45 billion. It involves 21, 6 40MW turbines annually producing 15.6TWh of electricity.
Gareth Clubb , director of Friends of the Earth Cymru said: “A massive concrete barrage stretching across the Severn could have an enormous environmental impact, destroying vast areas of habitat of international importance.”
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Offshore WIND staff, June 5, 2012; Image: tidalenergy.eu