Severn Barrage - Tidal Project W. Potential For 5% Of UK Generation - Shelved For Lack Of Money

[hatrack]

Plans to build a ten-mile tidal barrage across the River Severn that could generate up to 5 per cent of Britain’s electricity are likely to be shelved under a government cost-cutting drive, The Times has learnt.

The Severn Barrage project, which would cost up to £23 billion to build, is set to be indefinitely postponed early next year when ministers announce whether to commit fresh public funding, according to Westminster insiders. “They are moving towards a political fudge,” said one. “They will say they are delaying it, but in reality the lifeline on offer will not be worth very much.”

The vast cost and tight constraints on future public spending have led ministers to question the project’s affordability. Government figures show that the cost of generating electricity from a barrage across the Severn or from a tidal lagoon could be as high as £317 per megawatt hour, compared with £38 for nuclear power and no more than £85 for offshore wind.

The news will be a blow for advocates of the scheme, including the Sustainable Development Commission. They argue that it would help Britain to meet its ambitious EU targets of generating 30 per cent of UK electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

EDIT

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article6896064.ece

[wtmusic]

1. Offshore wind twice as expensive as nuclear?

Where's bananas? That can't be right... :evilgrin:

[Vincardog]

2. They ignore a lot of nuclear's cost IE Where is the cost of disposing of spend nuclear material?

[wtmusic]

3. Maybe it's included

:shrug:

[Vincardog]

4. ow can it be when there is no long term storage solution on offer?

[wtmusic]

5. That's a matter of opinion. nt

[Vincardog]

6. Tell me where and how is that solution to be?

[vinylsolution]

7. Don't the French already have one of these up and running?

I vaguely remember seeing something like this during a school trip to Brittany in the early 1980s.