Tide Power Scheme to Boost to UK Industry

Tide Power to Deliver Green Energy to UK A Project to Build a Lagoon in Swansea Bay that Will Provide Green Energy for 100,000 Homes Will this Week Announce the Winner of a £300m Contract to Build Its Power-generating Turbines

Tidal Lagoon Power, the company behind the project - pictured above in a computer generated image - is expected to reveal which of three international engineering groups - France's Alstom, Germany's Voith or a joint venture between Austria's Andritz and the American giant GE - has won the tender.

However, whoever wins, the project should deliver an almost £200m boost to the UK engineering sector with Tidal Lagoon aiming to ensure that 65pc of capital expenditure on the project is in Britain.

The lagoon works by taking advantage of the rise and fall of the tide in Swansea Bay, which at between 20ft and 30ft, is one of the highest in the world.

This is harnessed by building a huge seawall with 16 turbines mounted in it. As the tide rises they spin, generating power, as water flows through them and fills up the lagoon.

Once the the tide turns, this process is reversed letting water out of the lagoon, with the turbines - each 60ft long, 20ft high and capable producing 16 megawatts per hour - again generating power from the flow of water as the lagoon empties.

The Swansea lagoon project - which is expected to create about 2,000 jobs in its development - last week secured £100m of equity funding from Infrared Capital Partners, matching the amount Prudential has committed through its M&G investment arm. Macquarie is now leading the more than £750m debt financing the project requires.

The tidal power scheme has been designated a nationally significant infrastructure development under the Planning Act and is currently going through the planning process to gain consent, with the intention of it being up and running by 2019.

If successful, the project could put the UK at the centre of a new multi-billion pound sector in green power. Tidal Lagoon says the Swansea project is a proof of concept and hopes to build five other much larger lagoons around the UK each with 60 turbines.

Source: Telegraph

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• Tidal Energy
• Governance & Planning