Like Mr Toad unable to resist squandering his inheritance on the latest must-have motor-car, poop poop – the siren-voices of massive tidal power generating barrage proposals dominate the thinking around how to harness the power of the tides.
Philip Stafford, writing in the Financial Times, takes his readers past the much-vaunted credentials of the Cardiff-Weston barrage proposal on the Severn and starts to describe the downsides of the proposals. From what we know now, the implications of barraging big estuaries are profoundly worrying. Aside from the devastating impact on the natural environment, navigation, flooding and loss of archaeology (a big issue on the Severn) are all seriously compromised.
And there’s more to come. We are still waiting for the outcomes of further studies especially into the critical issues of how the estuary works in terms of the movements of water and sediment.
The FT article highlights, rightly, our wish to see innovative technologies taken forward – but to do that they need access to the vital studies that are in the pipeline. Weeks ago in mid October, I highlighted the problems created for the embryonic technologies looking to bid to join the big guys on the shortlist for the Severn – decision time is closing in and still there is no sign of the critical data that we need to make informed choices about tidal energy and the future of the Severn.