Four Pronged Campaign For Tidal Lagoon Grant Funding

Severn Estuary - second highest tidal range in the world

Four local authorities covering South West England and South East Wales are mounting a united campaign seeking funding for grant aid relating to a tidal lagoon project in the Severn Estuary.
Bristol City is leading the scheme and, along with Sedgemoor, West Somerset and Cardiff councils, will table a bid to the European Union this summer. This approach follows the shelving of the £25 billion tidal barrage proposal last year.

The councils hope building a tidal lagoon will have the advantage of creating valuable local expertise of the technology involved. A tidal lagoon works by isolating a large area of water with a concrete wall which houses a series of turbines. Electricity is produced as tidal water flows through the turbines four times a day.

Bristol City Council has not provided an estimate of the final cost of the project but has said it would be paid for through a combination of private and public money. The £3m grant would be used to carry out feasibility studies and gain a clearer estimate of the cost of the project and the size of the lagoon required.

Bill Edrich, from Bristol City Council said: "We've got this great geographic anomaly which is the second highest tidal range in the world and the highest tidal range with over a million people on both sides of the estuary.

The tidal lagoon project differs from the previous Severn barrage proposal which involved building an 11-mile (18km) wall between Lavernock Point near Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, and Brean near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Last September the UK government refused to commit to the Severn barrage proposal due to serious concerns about the environmental impact. There are also efforts being made by a Cheltenham-based Tidal Lagoon Power to build a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay with the aim of it generating power by 2018.