Too Great a Price?

The River Room of the House of Lords is an extremely pleasant venue and an excellent location for the launch of The Wildlife Trusts report Energy at Any Price. The event had been organised to coincide with a very high tidal bore - a likely casualty of a full barrage across the river Severn. The event was hosted by Baroness Young of Old Scone, and Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer.

I was most struck when Stephanie Hilborne, CEO of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, mentioned in her speech that half her lifetime ago the subject of the barrage had been discussed in detail by staff at the University of Bristol where she was then an undergraduate. It struck me forcibly because 21 years ago I was one of the audience at Bristol University listening to Sir Hermann Bondi reporting on issues relating to a proposed barrage. Bondi had been asked by the then government to investigate the implication of building and running a structure designed to extract tidal energy from the Severn, the river with the world’s second highest tidal range.

The essence of the Bondi Report, and the issues that still remain unresolved 21 years later are simple. A huge concrete structure with electricity generating tidal turbines is old technology and not necessarily the most appropriate for the job, and the impact of such a gigantic structure on an estuary that is of local, national, European and Global environmental importance is simply not understood.

The Wildlife Trusts report argues very persuasively that if the UK is to spend 10s of billions of pounds, irreversibly changing one of its greatest environmental assets irreversibly, it must do so wisely and on the basis of accurate scientific data. We are all aware that climate change is forcing us to move to energy production that does not involve burning fossilised sunlight (coal, gas, tar sands or oil). However, this change must not be at any price and tidal power generation from the Severn must make the best use of a precious environmental asset. The Severn Estuary deserves our full respect, much more research is needed before an over hasty decision is made on political grounds,

Energy at Any Price can be downloaded by clicking here.