Reports of a speech by Energy Minister Charles Hendry suggest that the Severn Barrage is an idea that is receding into the background for two reasons. First, there have always been more people who would like to be paid to build a barrage than would like to pay for a barrage, and the economic climate has shifted away from such expensive and potentially wasteful schemes. Second, it would be very embarrassing for a ConLib coalition government to go ahead with a project rejected at the last Liberal Democrat party conference.
When the announcement comes, will it be a day for rejoicing? Up to a point! The RSPB has always pointed out that a barrage between Weston-super-Mare and Lavernock Point would be an ecological disaster and would deliver a poor return of energy compared with other approaches. Sometimes people have not believed us when we have said that we do believe that the tidal power of the Severn Estuary should be harnessed in much more ecologically sensible ways. We still believe that tapping into that tidal power is a very sensible option - if done well. So we'll wait and see what government says when it says something!
Here are some links to what the RSPB has said on the subject (here, here, and here for a video, here, here, here, and what people have said about us as a result here, here and here).
I did recently stand on the end of Brean Down, looking past Steep Holm and Flat Holm to south Wales and pondered what a barrage would do to the estuary, to the local communities on either side of the estuary and how much energy it really would provide. Let's find a better solution.
Mark, I hope you are right. I must admit to a personal interest in that I grew up with a view of the Severn from my bedroom window and played alongside and even fished in it as a youngster. What a difference the barrage would have made to both the environment and the local area. Without it we will still have a bore (if you haven't seen one close up it's well worth a visit on a spring tide) but as you say there is still an opportunity to harness the tidal power in a non destructive manner.
The real scandal of this round of the Severn Tidal Energy saga is that from day one it was captured by a barrage centric approach and has never really escaped these clutches. At a Severn estuary energy conference run by the Institutute of Civil Engineers two years back there was a general conclusion that a much more creative way forward would have been to put engineers and environmentalists in a room and get them to describe and agree the parameters for a sustainable approach. Instead we have had two years of studies where the big barrage was the starting point, the norm, the monolithic monster that just sat on the room never ever letting real innovation in. Meanwhile as I understand it organisations like the RSPB argued for and even funded some minnow like attempts at innovation. There is a great chance now for the Coalition Government to dismiss years of wasted barrage obsessed work sponsored by the last Government and announce an accelerated programme to find and develop environmentaly sensitive tidal energy ideas. Go for it Mr Hune!!
Why should we damage the Severn (or any other wildlife-important estuary) at all? Let's just build a few wildlife-friendly nuclear power stations instead.
That's great news, the barrage would have been an ecolgical disaster. Some time back I gave a little bit of engineering advice to Martin Harper RSPB, regarding a consultant to use for technical advice on the alternative technologies to a barrage. It may have helped a little bit. As you say Mark, harnessed in a non damaging way, tidal power has great potential as a green energy supplier. I believe a large under water tidal turbine is currently being installed some where offshore in the Orkney Islands so it will be very interesting to see how it performes, Watch that space in particular!
Think in the long run lots of countries have concluded that nuclear power is needed and we will probably have to agree.