Wednesday 16 July 2008

But WWF urges the government to look seriously at proposals other than the Severn barrage in its feasibility study.

The long list, produced as part of a government feasibility study on tidal energy in the Severn estuary, has 10 projects proposals, including barrages, tidal lagoons and a tidal fence.

They are in different stages of development, and some are new ideas. Although the government's feasibility study was set up to consider all options for tidal power in the Severn, attention has focused almost entirely on the barrage and proper consideration has yet to be given to the alternatives.

Many options

"We have argued for many years that there are better ways of generating power from the tides than through fixed concrete barrages and we must keep all these options open. The publication of this list shows that there are many options, and government ministers have been wrong to focus exclusively on the barrage," said head of WWF Wales, Morgan Parry.

"Many of the other options offer promising technologies which the government can't afford to ignore and which, in principle at least, appear to have far fewer environmental impacts. Used in combination or if duplicated they could provide a comparable amount of power," he added.

Tidal fence, steam

"We urge the government to give serious consideration to the alternatives, such as the tidal fence and tidal steam proposals and to invest time and money in bringing them to an advanced state of readiness. This is not only fair, but the Habitats Directive requires it. These alternatives remove many of the objections we and other environmental organisations have raised to a barrage. Much more research and modelling needs to be done but they appear to be credible alternatives worthy of consideration by the government," Parry concluded.