James Heappey, the Conservative prospective MP for the Wells constituency, has welcomed proposals to generate electricity from a series of tidal lagoons across the UK.
These could include plans for a lagoon near Burnham-on-Sea in Bridgwater Bay – one of six which would capture incoming and outgoing tides behind giant sea walls, and use the weight of the water to power turbines.
James Heappey said:
“These tidal lagoons could make a significant contribution to our energy generating capacity whilst creating many jobs and bringing great investment too. I hope the Swansea project will progress rapidly through the planning process. By committing to this, admittedly, high ‘strike’ price for the first lagoon we will breathe life into the UK’s tidal energy industry and the projections for cost per kilowatt hour for subsequent lagoons are very attractive. Indeed at £90-95 per kw/h they are competitive with Hinkley Point.
“Clearly lagoons in Swansea and then Cardiff are of little benefit to the Somerset coast, but the big prize is Bridgwater Bay - and I am excited by this further progress. I am convinced that rather than wasting huge amounts of money subsidising unreliable (and ugly) wind farms, we should be investing in the tidal and wave energy sectors so that we can take advantage of the incredible resource that lies off our coast.
“I will continue to advocate the opportunities for tidal and wave power generation to the Government and hope that they will throw their full support behind this emerging industry that could do so much for our local economy.”