A major infrastructure project harnessing the vast tidal power of the Severn estuary is back on the agenda after the UK government said the Russian invasion of Ukraine had highlighted the need to find more secure sources of energy.
An independent commission was launched on Tuesday to explore using the Severn estuary, which has the second largest tidal range in the world, to create energy.
Michael Gove, the UK secretary of state for levelling up, backed the commission, which comes 12 years after the government dashed ambitious plans for a 10-mile energy-generating barrage.
Gove said: “Russia’s invasion has served to heighten concerns about energy security and costs. Sustainable forms of energy cannot come soon enough. The launch of an independent commission on tidal energy for the Severn is very welcome news.”
The commission has been set up by the Western Gateway “powerhouse”, a coalition of politicians, business and public sector leaders and academics covering an area stretching from Swansea to Swindon and straddling the Severn, designed to rival the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine. At its inaugural conference, delegates were told a Severn estuary tidal project could provide up to 7% of the UK’s energy needs.
Huw Thomas, the leader of Cardiff council and one of the leaders of the project said: “We’re becoming painfully aware of the need for greater energy security.”
Thomas acknowledged that concerns over possible damage to an internationally important marsh and mudflat habitat, harming wildlife had blighted previous schemes. In 2010 the UK government said there was no “strategic case” for investing in a barrage and, instead, paved the way for new nuclear power plants.
But Thomas said: “The changing landscape of the climate emergency, energy insecurity, rising costs, and rapid technological improvements, indicate that many of these policy, cost and environmental barriers may no longer be as significant.”
Thomas said the powerhouse was not wedded to any particular technology but he said the possibility of a barrage – which is likely to cost more than £25bn and take 10 years or more to come to fruition – or tidal lagoons would be explored.
Vaughan Gething, the Welsh government’s economy minister, told the conference it was committed to helping Wales become a leading centre for emerging tidal technology.
The leader of Newport city council, Jane Mudd, said: “It feels like the time is right to look at this again.” She said it was exciting that people on both sides of the estuary could work on the project. “The Severn is something that can unite us rather than divide us.”
