18th November 2006

Cllr Martin Whiteside, the Green party's Parliamentary candidate for Stroud attended the Symposium organised by the County Council looking at the Severn Barrage proposals on 1st November 2006 at Stonehouse Court Hotel.

Martin Whiteside commented: "While the Green party is open to looking at the Severn Barrage proposals we are deeply concerned by the potential negative environmental impacts of this project. There are serious questions about how the barrage will be funded and whether it really is the best way to go."

A range of speakers presented various views. The report below is another Green party member, Christine Prior's view of the day and under Reports on our website is a list of questions complied for the County to consider. The Green party are holding a regional conference in Bristol in January to look at the latest information regarding the barrage and other tidal technologies to consider how tidal energy can best be developed.


Personal view of Symposium

By Christine Prior

Introduction

I went to the meeting in order to try and stay up to date with latest developments on this project since attending a lecture given by Tom Shaw at Bath University earlier this year. I also read the Gloucestershire Green Party paper on tidal energy which gives a good background to anyone who is not familiar with this project.

In response to a request from the audience, Gloucestershire County Council have put all the power point presentations given by speakers on their web site so I shall try to give a brief objective opinion on what I see as the latest developments.

The Symposium

Tony Norton of Exeter University gave an overview of climate change using the Hadley Centre/University of Exeter models. He said that it is the speed of change which he finds most worrying as climate change will continue until 2050 whatever we do as it is now “locked in” and by then he expects the UK to have a similar climate to that of Portugal now.  This will impact on flora and fauna. He mentioned the South West Climate Change Impacts Partnership Environment Agency SWCCIP and they have a web site with lots of information.

Nicola Kirkup, DTI, Security of Energy Supply and Energy Markets.  She said that imported gas will be the main source of UK energy in the next 20 years and her presentation has good diagrams.  With regard to security of supply, she said that “the lack of transparency in European markets is a problem, ie storage, costs, partnerships”.  She mentioned Renewable Energy Certificates and said that most money is going to onshore wind production; carbon trading – low carbon energy will get higher allowances as incentive.  In answer to a question she agreed that there is a market failure (re low carbon energy supply) and the Government is looking to the market to provide a solution and that companies are waiting for consumer pull and that is not there at the moment – a convoluted sentence but simple explanation to the question as to why the markets do not seem to be interested in low carbon energy supply.

Graham Ayling, Severn Wye Energy Agency. His presentation was entirely focussed on GCC renewable energy initiatives particularly the “Warm and Well Scheme”.

Stephanie Merry, Renewable Energy Association REA Ocean Energy Group.  Her presentation concerned tidal technologies and was really upbeat and interesting. She said that the advantage of tidal technology over wind turbines is that water is 830 times denser than air and is a predictable energy resource which arrives on schedule.  They have a £3.4m project Seaflow installed off Lynmouth producing 300kw from an axiel turbine but unfortunately they have no money to connect to the grid.  Problems - maintenance and the corrosive marine environment and technical problems making equipment waterproof.  Advantages -  this technology has less effect on flow and sediment transfer and other users of the sea than would a barrage.  Present technology needs 30m depth so can only be used downstream of Lynmouth but micro tidal in less than 30m is possible. In the UK we are world leaders in this type of technology with a highly skilled workforce from the oil and gas industries and tidal technology has the potential to become a new industry for domestic and global markets. Some of the designs you can see in her powerpoint presentation are in development and they are held back by a lack of finance   The Government is to introduce a Marine Spacial Planning Bill next year with similar powers to land planning now.

John Gummer MP was an interesting speaker who spoke for a long time and said we are lucky to have the Severn and should use its power to combat climate change.

Morgan Parry, Head of WWF in Wales.  He was the first speaker to mention lagoons in the context of the Severn Estuary. He said that although water can be held in sections to maintain energy generation, they use a lot more aggregate in construction, may shift on the river bed in strong storms so it would not be possible to install wind turbines on them and fish trapped inside them will die. He talked about the Bay of Fundy Annapolis Royal Tide Generator which was built as a pilot project, this led to high fish mortality, soil erosion and backed up tide which caused the sea level to rise and consequently a much larger barrier was not built across the Bay of Fundy.  He said that climate change will inevitably lead to changes in the wild life in the estuary.   In summary, he raised many questions and wants more studies carried out before any development takes place.

John Redman of the Severn Power Tidal Group (most of the group have been involved in this project since the 80s) was the last speaker.  In comparison to the presentation by Tom Shaw that I attended he was not a very good
speaker and his message was that the barrage deserves detailed reappraisal/assessment.  He did say that the STPG have recently had a meeting with Harbour Masters and locks built into the barrage should not interfere with shipping at Avonmouth.

I had the chance to ask my question right at the end of the day,   “If the barrage can be used as a flood defence and is built in the Weston super Mare area, what would happen to land downstream particularly Bridgewater and the Somerset levels, particularly at times of high tides and storm surges”. Although not said explicitly, John Redman implied that dredging would have to become a permanent feature in the Channel and he confirmed that the barrage could be used as a flood defence.  However it was Morgan Parry who got the biggest thumbs down when he said that received wisdom was that flood water should be allowed to flow freely and when challenged by a member of the audience he  said I think the Nature Conservancy Council knows best to which came the reply “I am the Leader of Somerset County Council”.  If you look at John Redman’s presentation, a barrage west of Minehead has always been an option, he said it would cost 50% more but produce 50% more electricity.  At this point I got the impression from the audience that if a barrage were to be built then this was the preferred site.   The Burnham and Somerset Levels Sea Flood Study Group favour the Minehead – South Wales option.

John Redman had said that the Severn Bore would end if the barrage were built but after his presentation Tom Shaw, who was in the audience, stood up and said that the Severn Bore would not end if the barrage were built as the flow of water could be manipulated to produce a Bore at any time.

Summary

I am against the barrage because of the risks of putting so much money into one scheme and the long build time, if yet more appraisals have to be carried out after so many have already been done, doesn’t this suggest that there is a problem at the core of the scheme? The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon Power Report on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Welsh Development Agency April 2006 can be found on the web and will be of interest to those of you who are scientists.  Technologies being developed by the REA Ocean Energy Group seem to me to be cleanest and greenest.

We have the longest coast line in Europe and I think that we should be demanding tidal technology development funded by the Government as a matter of extreme urgency, despite expensive development costs the source of power is free and infinite.

Peter Kydd of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Bristol  was handing out his card after the seminar and he said that they are considering a small barrage further upstream but  I haven’t looked into this.