Tidal Power

Tidal Power in the UK

The UK’s outstanding tidal resources could provide at least 10% of the country’s electricity. The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) has carried out a comprehensive study of tidal power in the UK, including an evaluation of proposals for a Severn barrage. Our report, ‘Tidal Power in the UK’, includes a series of recommendations to Government on how to develop our tidal resource, and emerging tidal technologies, to provide secure, low carbon electricity for the long term.

Download: Tidal Power in the UK

Have your say on tidal power

A Severn Barrage

A barrage in the Severn Estuary could supply 4.4% of UK electricity supply (17TWh) from the second greatest tidal range resource in the world, generating electricity for over 120 years. Developing a Severn barrage would result in significant climate change and energy security benefits.

However, it would have a major impact on the local environment, with the loss of up to 75% of the existing intertidal habitat, which is internationally protected. There would also be a number of impacts on local communities and the regional economy, and a high risk that unsustainable ancillary development would take place alongside any barrage project. The SDC has therefore laid down a series of tough conditions which a Severn barrage would have to meet in order to be considered sustainable.

These include:

• A Severn barrage must be publicly led as a project and publicly owned as an asset to avoid short-termist decisions and ensure the long-term public interest

• Full compliance with European Directives on habitats and birds is vital, as is a long-term commitment to creating compensatory habitats on an unprecedented scale

• Further investigation of the ‘environmental opportunity’ that might exist for combining climate change mitigation with adaptation through a habitat creation package that actively responds to the impacts of climate change over the long term

• Development of a Severn barrage must not divert Government attention away from much wider action on climate change.

Tidal Stream

The UK also has an excellent tidal stream resource, and is leading the world in the development of a wide range of tidal stream devices, several of which are at the testing stage. The UK must ‘stay the course’ in developing these technologies, as the export and climate change benefits are potentially very large.

Despite the encouraging progress made so far, Government could do more to assist these emerging technologies, particularly through flexible financial support, and by providing additional resources to the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

Tidal Lagoons

On tidal lagoons, the SDC found that there is a lack of available evidence on the costs and environmental impacts, mainly due to the absence of any practical experience. We have called on Government to support the development of one or more demonstration project, which would help provide real-life data on their economic and environmental viability.

This project was announced in the 2006 Energy Review, and was funded by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), Welsh Assembly Government, South West of England Regional Development Agency, Scottish Government, and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Northern Ireland).

The SDC commissioned five desk-based research reports to inform our work, and we received a large volume of evidence from a wide range of organisations and individuals, to whom we are very thankful. We also undertook a programme of public and stakeholder engagement to explore opinions and attitudes towards tidal power in the UK and the Severn Estuary resource. The final reports of the SDC commissioned work can be downloaded below.