Cameron second-guessing support for Swansea Bay tidal lagoon?

Questioned over the potential use of tidal energy from Bristol Channel while giving evidence to the House of Commons Liaison Committee, UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron said that his ‘enthusiasm is reduced slightly by the fact that the cost would be quite high.’

Swansea Bay 320 MW tidal lagoon project, developed by Tidal Lagoon Power, plans to harness the tides of Bristol Channel to produce electricity which would be enough to meet the annual electricity requirements of over 90% of homes in the Swansea Bay area.

UK Secretary of State, Amber Rudd, granted the planning consent for the construction of the project in June, 2015, which was planned to begin in spring 2016. However, the developer has since postponed the construction of the project by a year, due to delays in agreeing the subsidy with the UK government.

Last year, Cameron hailed the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon project as the one ‘with real transformational potential for Swansea’, but when questioned yesterday about exploiting the Bristol Channel’s tides for producing clean power, Cameron said:

“Instinctively, I can see the strength of the argument for tidal power, because one of the problems with renewables is whether they can provide base-load power. Nuclear can. Wind cannot, because it is intermittent. But tidal, because the tide is always going in or out, can provide base-load power. The problem with tidal power, simply put, is that at the moment we have not seen any ideas come forward that can hit a strike price in terms of pounds per megawatt-hour that is very attractive. That is the challenge for tidal. Maybe they can come up with something. They are very long-term schemes with big investments up front, and they can last for many, many years, but right now my enthusiasm is reduced slightly by the fact that the cost would be quite high.”

Neil Parish, Member of Parliament, agreed with Cameron that the capital cost of the tidal scheme in Swansea Bay is very high, but pointed out that if the cost of this naturally limitless power is put over a great number of years it would prove inexpensive, to which Cameron replied:

“Obviously we have to look at the figures as they come out. As I have said, tidal power has got the permanence to it. There are important economic benefits in terms of urban renewal and all the rest of it. I totally see all those arguments and have seen some exciting prospects, but as I said, you have to come back to the question of what the action I take will do to the security of supply and the cost of supply. In all the arguments about renewables, you always have to ask yourself what that will put on a household bill.”

The subsidized price Tidal Lagoon Power is thought to be asking is £168 for MW/h with the contract duration of 35 years.

The UK government is supposedly reviewing the figures for the other planned lagoons in addition to the one in Swansea Bay, because, according to Tidal Lagoon Power, the costs will decrease as other lagoons in Cardiff, Newport and Colwyn Bay are built.