Mott MacDonald has been appointed to advise on the proposed Northern Tidal Power Gateways project across Morecambe Bay and the Duddon Estuary in north west England.
The gateway at Morecambe Bay could produce 6,500GWh of electricity per year, enough to power approximately 1.5 million homes, according to initial studies by the developer behind the project, Northern Tidal Power Gateways Ltd.
The investigations have also found that the Duddon Estuary gateway could generate around 100GWh of electricity each year, the equivalent of powering approximately 25,000 homes.
With an estimated construction cost of £8 billion, the Northern Tidal Power Gateways have the potential to generate over 7,500 construction jobs and more than £300 million gross value added per year to the England’s north west economy during construction, according to a global engineering, management and development consultancy Mott MacDonald.
In addition to the power generated from these renewable resources, the project could potentially improve both transport infrastructure and connectivity in the areas, which would boost economic growth, Mott MacDonald said.
Mott MacDonald will also analyze how the wider economic benefits of the scheme can be captured and realized.
David Stork , Mott MacDonald’s Project Director, said: “Our team will be responsible for investigating all the opportunities made possible by this development, as well as understanding the challenges that will need to be overcome to make the project feasible.”
Northern Tidal Power Gateways is the brainchild of Alan Torevell , chair of Dewhurst Torevell, who said: “It is hoped that before the end of autumn 2017 there will be sufficient confidence to move into the feasibility phase of the project, where all the necessary planning requirements will need to be met and any remaining environmental concerns alleviated, to enable a start to be made.”