As a part of a massive expansion of its renewable energy program, Britain might soon become the first nation in the world to generate much of its power from tidal energy.
The Environment Secretary, David Miliband, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain and Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling are pushing in for a giant £14bn barrage to be built across the Severn. Once operational, the plant would generate about 5 per cent of the country’s electricity without producing any of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
But, the environmental bodies, which say that the barrage would devastate the estuary’s wildlife, have not welcomed the proposal. The Environment Agency, Natural England and the Countryside Council for Wales, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Friends of the Earth, say that the scheme would cause irreversible impacts to the estuary’s globally vital habitats for birds and other species and its exceptional and unique ecology.
Though, the Parliament received the proposal with uproar as Mr Hain explained,
Tidal power was a huge untapped energy resource and that the Severn barrage is a project whose time has come. With the huge threat of climate change, it is only through clean, green energy projects like this that we can make the necessary reductions in our carbon emissions.
The 10-mile barrage is proposed by the Severn Tidal Power Group, a group of six major companies. According to the project, the barrage would stretch across the Severn estuary from south of Cardiff to south of Weston-super-Mare. It will be the bigger than the present barrage existing at La Rance, Brittany.
Official environmental advisers of the Government, say there is “no basis” for the change in policy. The environment secretary, Miliband, lashing at the environmentalists said that biodiversity cannot be protected unless other environmental impacts are taken care of and the most serious being tackling climate change.
Via:Independent
