Boost for £8bn tidal lagoon plan

A DEAL has been signed to connect an £8bn tidal lagoon planned for Cardiff to the electricity grid.

The lagoon, which will only go ahead if a smaller pilot project planned for Swansea is approved and is successful, would be the UK’s largest ever renewable energy project.

It would create and sustain 8,000 manufacturing jobs.

The company, Tidal Lagoon Power, plans to create a wave of world first tidal lagoons around the coast of the UK.

It has struck a deal with the National Grid that will ensure that if the project gets the go-ahead then electricity generated would flow into the National Grid, providing energy for homes and businesses across the UK.

The project would be capable powering every home in Wales.

However, the massive 3,240 megawatt at capacity generating scheme, stretching from off the coast of Cardiff Bay to the south of Newport, would only have a chance of proceeding if Tidal Lagoon Power first gets the green light from the UK Government – as well as a marine licence from Natural Resources Wales – for the smaller and pathfinder Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon.

The UK Government has yet to of respond to the independent Hendry Commission review, which earlier this year recommended that the £1.3bn Swansea Bay project be given the goahead as the first in the series of tidal lagoons off the west coast of Britain creating thousands of new jobs, as well as a new green energy industry.

The UK Government is weighing up whether to give the Swansea project a so- called strike, or effectively a green subsidy, of £89.90 per megawatt hour of energy over a 90-year period.

Its design would allow it to produce energy for at least 120 years.

A final decision is expected in the autumn, although there are concerns that the UK Government could opt not to back it.

Tidal Lagoon Power’s chief executive, Mark Shorrock, said: “Looking at the pounds per megawatt hour unit cost of new build power stations, nuclear is currently priced in the nineties, the latest offshore wind projects are expected to drop into the seventies and our models show Cardiff Tidal Lagoon beating them all in the sixties.”

Leader of Cardiff Council, Huw Thomas, said: “We welcome this development as an important milestone in progressing a hugely exciting and potentially transformative project for Cardiff and the wider region.”

Debbie Wilcox, leader of Newport City Council said: “This exciting new project is fantastic news.”