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Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister of State for Energy
Royal Academy of Engineering, 22 May 2008
It's a pleasure to be here today to discuss our feasibility study on Tidal Power in the Severn Estuary. And I am pleased the Academy is hosting this early discussion on the issues. Your engineering expertise will be invaluable to the success of the study, and I look forward to hearing your views this afternoon and over the course of the coming months – indeed, over the next two years, because as you will know, this is a huge and historic project, and the feasibility study alone is an ambitious and necessarily lengthy exercise.
Proposals for damming or barraging the Severn estuary are nothing new. The most recent studies, in the 1980s, looked at the potential for generating electricity by harnessing the estuary’s huge tidal range – which at 14 metres is second only worldwide to the Bay of Fundy in Canada.
The conclusion in 1989 was that a barrage was technically feasible, and that a barrage from Cardiff to Weston-super-Mare would have an annual output of around 17 terawatt hours – 5% of today's UK electricity demand. This would allow an annual carbon dioxide saving of over 6 million tonnes, or around 1% of UK emissions today. But the Government of the day decided that a barrage was not then a cost-effective option.
Times have changed. The economics have changed. There is no longer any serious debate about climate change and the need to act now to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, we must ensure we continue to enjoy reliable, safe and competitively priced energy supplies. No small task at a time when prices in global energy markets are high and rising, and when a large proportion of fossil fuel reserves are in some of the less stable regions of the world.
These challenges require a diverse and increasingly low-carbon mix that include consideration of all reasonable options. We are acting now as a Government to move rapidly in just that direction. We are “acting on CO2”.
Increased energy efficiency, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage for fossil fuel plants all have vital roles to play.
And so do renewables. We’re making rapid progress on offshore wind, as you will be aware, but a potential flagship renewables project is of course a Severn tidal power scheme - such as a barrage or lagoon. This is why, when I led the Energy Review in 2006, I asked the Sustainable Development Commission to look again at tidal power options in the Severn Estuary.
Their study – which looked at tidal range and tidal stream technologies – reported in autumn last year. And I was pleased with the key message that tidal power can be generated in the Severn Estuary within sustainable development principles, and so it remains an option open for consideration in the context of our developing Renewable Energy Strategy, on which we’ll be consulting this summer.
Of course, as the SDC advised, much more work needs to be done before a decision could be taken on whether to proceed with a tidal power scheme. For example, we need to use up-to-date modelling techniques to assess and understand the potentially considerable environmental impacts.
We also need to consider the issue of compensatory habitat; costs; financing and ownership issues; and the regional, social, economic and energy market impacts. This is a massive and extremely complex project and we must take the time to gather a robust evidence base and ensure all these impacts are truly understood – and we are doing this through our feasibility study.
The feasibility study
The feasibility study – which will build on the work of the Sustainable Development Commission and earlier studies – will run until 2010. It will enable us to decide whether, and if so on what terms, Government could support a tidal range project or projects in the Estuary. The full terms of reference are available in your papers for this meeting.
The study will focus on tidal range technologies (including barrages and lagoons) because – as the SDC report highlighted – this is where the main resource of the Estuary lies.
The study will have two phases, with a decision point at the end of each. The first phase, likely to run until late 2008, will focus on high-level issues, producing a shortlist of potential tidal power project options. We will then reach an initial view on whether there are any fundamental issues that mean the project can not proceed and at this point (later this year) there will be an internal decision to either stop, or to continue with our evidence gathering and assessments.
If the decision is taken to continue, we will then consult on our shortlisted tidal power options and the scope of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (of which more later) and begin phase two, looking at the issues in more detail and narrowing down to a preferred tidal range scheme. This will culminate in a full public consultation in early 2010.
The study is being carried out by a cross-Government team led by my Department and including representatives of the Welsh Assembly Government and the South West Regional Development Agency. But the team will be doing this work inclusively. They are taking external advice and engaging stakeholders and the public – and we are keen to hear your thoughts on how we can best engage with you. We have asked the RAE to consider who might serve on an independent expert panel to advise the study on technical and engineering aspects and peer review the outputs.
Study work areas
I’d just like to give a little more detail on what we’ll be doing over the next two years.
The study has been split into six main areas of work. These are:
The study will also include a Strategic Environmental Assessment to ensure a detailed understanding of the Estuary's environmental resource, recognising its National, European and International nature conservation significance. Earlier this month we announced the appointment of a consortium led by consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff to manage this Strategic Environmental Assessment.
I'm very pleased to be welcome the PB Consortium to the team. They have strong engineering and environmental capabilities, and I am confident they will help, along with your expertise, develop the robust evidence base we need.
One of the immediate tasks for the PB team will be to carry out a technical options appraisal of the existing and new schemes in order to narrow them down to a shortlist of projects, or combination of projects, on which we can base the detailed environmental assessment and other study work next year. This work will both refresh the designs from the 1980s and also work up the less detailed proposals as needed, looking particularly at updating cost projections and the issue of ebb/flow generation and the trade-offs for generating electricity more evenly.
To help inform this work the Consortium issued on 12 May a Call for Evidence in two parts. Firstly a Call for Proposals, inviting evidence-based proposals with technical and financial information on proposals for tidal range power development in the Estuary – including information on how previous proposals have been further developed. And secondly a Call for Information, such as information on environmental impacts, which could usefully contribute to the evidence base for the initial appraisal of the schemes.
The technical part of the Call – the Call for Proposals - closes on 13 June, while the information part will run until 11 July. The team will then be considering – with stakeholders – all the information provided, before including the proposed short-listed options in the first consultation at the end of this year, when we will also be consulting on the scope of the Strategic Environmental Assessment.
And we do want to bring in your expertise and will be looking to do so through workshops and expert panels. Please also respond to the Call or contact the team if you would like to be more involved. Both the BERR and Parsons Brinckerhoff website addresses and contact details are included in your papers.
Green Groups
I’d like to finish by saying a word about the green groups. As a Government we consider them important stakeholders whose input we need. At their best they can act as our environmental conscience, as expert advisors and as critical friends. But I’d like to appeal to them to avoid falling into the trap that sometimes beckons to single-issue lobby groups, which is to lose sight of the big picture.
Some green groups have opposed a Severn barrage because of the effects it would have on habitat and wildlife. That’s a reasonable position. Many green groups have opposed nuclear power, because of concerns about waste. That’s a reasonable position too. Some say we should never consent to another fossil-fuel power plant, even with carbon capture and storage, and of course there’s a logic to that argument. Some even oppose onshore wind farms (because birds may fly into them) and offshore wind farms because of the effects on sea life.
Individually, these are all valid concerns – no technology is without its costs. But if we said no to all these sources of electricity, the lights would go out and the economy would grind to a halt, and that’s an outcome the country simply will not accept.
Government’s job is to balance the competing interests. We’re pursuing all these technologies – nuclear, renewables, carbon capture and storage – precisely because they all reduce carbon emissions, while improving our energy security.
I don’t expect the green groups ever to say we’re doing enough on the environment, or even to give us much credit for what we are doing. But I do think it would be a very sad irony if, through the best intentions in the world, they allowed themselves to become a stumbling block to progress in tackling climate change, rather than a cheerleader for that progress.
We know the Severn Estuary has the potential to generate 5% of UK electricity from an indigenous renewable source, saving around 1% of UK CO2 emissions. We know we must act now to meet the considerable challenges of climate change and energy security. We also know a Severn Tidal Power scheme could have considerable environmental impacts and that is why we are doing more work to ensure we truly understand these impacts.
I hope everyone will keep an open mind, as the Government will, in developing the right solutions to help meet the challenge of climate change and energy security. I look forward to working with you as we take this project forward.
