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RSPB tidal scheme 'better' than Severn Barrage

A tidal generation scheme that would protect wildlife and generate more electricity and a lower cost than other proposals has been put forward by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Europe's largest conservation group has carried out a feasibility assessment of a tidal reef, which it claims would be more powerful and have a lower impact on wildlife than the most famous of the projects for the mouth of the Severn river.

The Severn Barrage, which would cross the water between Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare, would trap water at high tide and then let it out through gates to turn turbines.

This process would destroy the saltmarshes where 68,000 seasonal birds feed, while the turbines would endanger fish, according to the RSPB.

Instead, it proposes a tidal reef farther out to sea which would lie low in the water and use slow-turning turbines to generate more electricity.

Professor Rod Rainey, the report's author, said: "We believe this scheme could be more powerful but less costly than other plans being put forward, particularly the Cardiff to Weston barrage."

The Severn Barrage proposal is said to generate 17,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year, or five per cent of the UK's total, while the RSPB's reef would generate 20,000 GWh and cost £2 billion less to build, claims the group.

Either would provide a significant contribution to the UK's bid to generate 15 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

To find out more about this visit the Welsh Assmebly Government's site

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