Ecotricity planning to build tidal lagoon

Britain’s leading green energy company has welcomed the Government’s review of tidal lagoon energy. The company is set to release, later this year, its plans on the first tidal lagoon energy site in the UK.

Ecotricity has written to the Department for Energy and Climate Change, calling the Government to look at the cost of the resource.

Ecotricity founder, Dale Vince, said: “The Government has been agonising for a while about what level of support to give to the first tidal project in Britain. They’re clearly interested in the technology, which is a good thing, but they’ve been put off by the price tag of £168/MWh proposed by Swansea Bay – that’s understandable.” “We welcome the review, because we’re confident that tidal power projects can be built around Britain at much closer to £90/MWh - that’s the same price the Government are paying to support nuclear energy, but without the risks or clean-up costs.” “We were concerned that the Government were being pushed into paying too high a price for tidal energy through the Swansea Bay scheme – that would be bad for renewable energy generally because it would reinforce the myth that green energy is expensive, and bad for tidal power specifically because it may never get off the ground.” “We’re hoping this review will lead to the Government supporting tidal energy in Britain and doing it in a way that will enable competition, and through that value for money – enabling tidal mills to achieve their true potential in Britain.”