Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) — The U.K. should push ahead with a 25
billion-pound ($40 billion) plan for a barrage generating
electricity across the Severn Estuary, a lawmaker said.
The project may be able to generate 5 percent of the U.K.’s
power for more than a century and create as many as 50,000 jobs,
said Peter Hain, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party
whose constituency in Wales would be near the facility.
An earlier blueprint for the development was axed in 2010
because of its cost to public finances. The government said May
2011 the Severn was open to private projects as Britain chases a
goal of getting 15 percent of its power from renewables by 2020.
New proposals to build a barrage by Hafren Power Ltd.
wouldn’t require any money from the U.K. Treasury, Hain said.
“This is natural power which in the long term will
produce incredibly cheap electricity for the U.K. and has many
other benefits like flood protection,” Hain told a hearing of
the Energy and Climate Change Committee today in Parliament in
London. “This has been studied to death. We can carry on
researching to our hearts content for decades to come. You’ve
got to think big, act big and grasp this opportunity,” he said.
The Hafren plans, put to Prime Minister David Cameron in
July, involve an 11-mile (18 kilometer) barrage from Cardiff in
South Wales to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. Its 1,026 turbines
would generate power on tides as the sea rises and falls.
Barrage Plans
Earlier plans garnered criticism from environmental groups
including The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for
encroaching on mudflat and saltmarsh habitats. The latest plans
would be less disruptive by using turbines that would be more
“fish friendly” than previous plans, according to Hain.
Power output may match that of three or four nuclear power
stations or 3,000 wind turbines, said Hain, who resigned from
the Shadow Cabinet to campaign for the project. The lawmaker
said today he had no commercial relationship with Hafren Power.
The plans may also spur about 20,000 construction and
30,000 manufacturing and service jobs in nine years, as well as
saving billions of pounds in flood protection, he said. The
proposals would be able to obtain approval in a year with
government authorization through a so-called Hybrid Bill.
Hafren Power will seek a subsidy, ultimately levied on
consumer bills, in line with that awarded to offshore wind
projects, Hain said. Hafren couldn’t immediately be contacted
for comment. The company said in August that it would seek
investors for 20 percent to 25 percent of the project.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Sally Bakewell in London at
Sbakewell1@bloomberg.net
Louise Downing in London at
ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
