Tidal lagoons could bring over £70B to UK industry, report says

Tidal Lagoon Power (TLP), the developer behind the proposed Swansea Bay tidal lagoon, has launched a report on the scale of the British industrial opportunity arising from the development of tidal lagoon power plants in the UK.

‘Ours to Own’ report sets out how Britain’s first mover advantage in the production of major components for tidal lagoon turbines, generators and turbine housings at Swansea Bay can be sustained and grown as the tidal lagoon sector scales in the UK and worldwide.

The report identifies an immediate opportunity for the UK’s engineering, construction, steel and manufacturing industries to win contracts totalling over £800 million at Swansea Bay and over £6 billion for the first project to employ its template at full-scale at Cardiff.

In addition to significant value captured through project design, services and operations, as well as more than half a billion pounds of investment in new UK industrial facilities, the report also finds the potential value of the tidal lagoon sector to UK industry to be £17 billion for tidal lagoon turbines and generators, £24 billion for tidal lagoon turbine housings, and £30 billion worth of exports to international tidal lagoon market.

Mark Shorrock, Tidal Lagoon Power’s CEO, said: “This report captures the hard work of today’s industrialists to ensure tidal lagoons are British-engineered, that the manufacturing supply chain is British, and that we seize and own what can be a £70 billion sector for this nation. It is an extraordinary opportunity.”

Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon has been brought forward as a pathfinder project for UK and international tidal lagoons at full-scale, according to TLP.

Once fully constructed, the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon will have the capacity of 320MW, enough to power approximately 155,000 of Welsh households.

The project received a Development Consent Order in 2015, and is primed to begin with the construction in 2017.