23rd February 2008

Lead Green Euro candidate welcomes report of Canadian work on tidal barrages: see his letter to The Citizen and statement to press

Letter to The Citizen: 

The recent ITV Severn Barrage debate at Slimbridge sidelined comments and questions from the floor on the lessons to be learnt from the Bay of Fundy tidal barrage off the coast of Canada. I therefore welcome The Citizens' report of Bath scientist Prof Simon Hasletts' presentation to the Canadian conference looking at tidal power (18th Feb 2008).

The Canadians have been experimenting with tidal power generation for many years and are now convinced that building a barrage is inefficient and has many undesirable environmental impacts, particularly with silting. We need to learn from their experience and not make the same mistakes.

There are other ways to harness the Severn's energy. The preferred option of the Green party, as discussed and adopted at our national Conference in Swansea last October, is for Tidal Lagoons - these, in combination with proven off-shore wind projects, such as the Atlantic Array off Lundy and emerging tidal-flow and wave-power technologies, could significantly assist the South-west in achieving already inadequate targets for the production of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Cllr Ricky Knight,
South-west Green Party Lead Candidate for the European Elections.

Statement to press: 

Cllr Ricky Knight, South-west Green Party Lead Candidate for the 2009 European Elections, said: "At the recent ITV Severn Barrage debate at Slimbridge, it was interesting to note how comments and questions from the floor on the lessons to be learnt from the Bay of Fundy project were sidelined by the panel. As such, we welcome the news from Canadian scientists, confirming our deep concerns about building a barrage across the Severn Estuary."

Ricky Knight added: "The Canadians have been experimenting with tidal power generation for many years and are now convinced that building a barrage is inefficient and has many undesirable environmental impacts, particularly with silting. We need to learn from their experience and not make the same mistakes. There are other ways to harness the Severn's energy. The preferred option of the Green party, as discussed and adopted at our national Conference in Swansea last October, is for Tidal Lagoons - these, in combination with proven off-shore wind projects, such as the Atlantic Array off Lundy and emerging tidal-flow and wave-power technologies, could significantly assist the South-west in achieving already inadequate targets for the production of energy from renewable sources by 2020."