£25bn Severn barrage plan fails to win over MPs worried by cost

A private-sector bid to build a £25bn Severn barrage is “no knight in shining armour” for UK energy, MPs warned as they refused to back the plans.

The 11-mile tidal barrage spanning the Severn estuary could meet 5 per cent of UK’s electricity demand but the proposals do not make a strong economic case and raise serious environmental concerns, the Energy and Climate Change Committee said.

Although it would be privately funded, the barrage would need high levels of Government support through long-term contracts that give a guaranteed price for low carbon power, with the costs levied on consumer energy bills.

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The price that would have to be paid for the clean electricity generated by the tidal barrage would be much higher than the support expected for other low carbon technologies such as nuclear reactors and offshore wind, a report from the MPs said.

Plans for the 1,026 turbine barrage between Lavernock Point, near Cardiff, and Brean, Weston-super-Mare, have also failed to overcome serious environmental concerns, the MPs said, with a high risk of potentially damaging impacts on the natural world.

An “unprecedented” amount of habitat for birds and other wildlife such as mudflats and saltmarsh would need to be created to replace what was lost by building the barrage, while concerns have been raised about harm to fish from the turbines.

The consortium behind the plans have also failed to fully address concerns about how the barrage would affect the surrounding ports, and although new jobs would be created, others could be lost, the MPs said.

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Energy and Climate Change Committee chairman Tim Yeo said they could not recommend the scheme by Hafren Power.

The committee’s inquiry into the plans was prompted by news the consortium had met the Prime Minister to discuss proposals for a tidal barrage, and the MPs also raised concerns about the lack of detailed, publicly-available information on the project.

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