The report by former energy minister, Charles Hendry, urged the government to move to the final stages of negotiations with Tidal Lagoon Power, the company which wants to build a small trial lagoon at Swansea Bay and five larger ones later.
“The tidal lagoons programme offers Wales and the UK a great opportunity to become a global leader in this form of renewable power generation,” said Dr Jenifer Baxter, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. “The project at Swansea will enable greater knowledge and understanding of the role tidal power can play in our distributed energy systems.”
Environmental groups, engineers and investors welcomed Charles Hendry’s verdict, although some conservationists raised concerns over the local impact on birds and fish and one expert raised concerns over costs.
But Hendry said he believed the evidence was clear that tidal lagoons could be cost-effective and affordable. He suggested the Swansea ‘pathfinder’ lagoon would cost households around 30p each a year over the first 30 years.
“I would strongly caution against ruling out tidal lagoons because of the hopes of other cheaper alternatives being available in the future,” he said.
Negotiations on a guaranteed price for the electricity the lagoon would generate are ongoing with the government. The figure is expected to be similar to the £92.50 per megawatt hour agreed for the Hinkley C nuclear power station, but over closer to 90 years rather than the 35-year Hinkley deal.
There are hopes of developing a network of larger lagoons around the UK coast, but Mr Hendry believed that was “too ambitious a goal” before even one had been built and “could only be considered properly when more progress had been made”.
Dr Baxter added: “The support of the Swansea tidal scheme could create new opportunities for turbine, efficiency and design innovations as well as connecting this power source to storage solutions, such as cryogenic or new localised transport infrastructure.”
