Northern Tidal Power Gateways' Communications Director Chris Nelson discusses the advantages to the county of developing tidal power as a renewable energy resource.

In the wake of COP26 all eyes are on the UK as host for the event to see how we are now actioning our own net zero green initiatives.

There has been wide discussion of global warming, the impact of sea level rises on coastal communities and the strategies to develop renewable energy to replace fossil fuels.

It is frustrating therefore that the UK Government continues to show little interest in developing a predictable, renewable energy resource for which Cumbria is uniquely positioned to provide world leadership – the potential for tidal range power.

Cumbria and its Energy Coast has already laid the foundations with the proposed Northern Tidal Power Gateways project for Morecambe Bay and the Duddon Estuary.

The Morecambe Bay Tidal Power Gateway will be approximately 17km long and the Duddon installation 5.6km long. Each will contain powerhouses with turbines and sluice gates, navigation locks to enable boats to pass through, and wildlife friendly fish passes. The scheme will harness the vast tidal range of up to 10 metres, and use 132 turbines to generate power equivalent to a nuclear power station.

Highways on top of the tidal power installations will provide quick and easy links between Cumbria and Lancashire, connecting with the M6 in the south, and the A595 in the north. The Duddon Estuary road will connect Millom and Askam in Furness radically improving access to West Cumbria and the whole transport initiative will ease pressure on the A590 and South Cumbria’s infrastructure.

It will deliver huge transport saving and reduce road miles due to shorter journeys. An estimated 9 million crossings annually will reduce distance by 50% and journey times by 75% with fuel savings of 750,000 litres annually.

The project will also provide huge socio-economic benefits for the Morecambe Bay community, improving access to health services and enhancing employment opportunities due to greater connectivity.

Tidal power is reliable, it is affordable, and it is sustainable. Here are ten reasons why it should be high on the agenda for our green future:

1. Tidal range power barrages across Morecambe Bay and the Duddon estuaries could generate emission free power for 100 years and protect fragile ecologies from the threat of rising sea levels.

2. The £10 billion Morecambe Bay/Duddon Estuary project will deliver 8 million megawatt hours (8 terawatt hours TWh) of predictable, emission-free power annually, enough for 2 million homes. The project will also create more than 12,000 new jobs.

3. The UK coastline has some of the world’s best locations for tidal range power generation and the Morecambe Bay/Duddon Estuary scheme will be a proving ground for the latest turbine technology and create the foundation for a new tidal power industry.

4. That ground-breaking development will in turn support a broader vision of tidal power installations on the West Coast from the Solway Firth to Somerset, harnessing a rolling tidal flow with the time difference in the tides of these estuaries generating power for up to 24 hours a day. That could increase the output of predictable emission-free electricity towards 120TWh p.a. – delivering 20% of the UK requirement for electricity.

5. No-one else is proposing a viable solution to the threat to Morecambe Bay’s most ecologically sensitive areas from predicted sea level rises associated with global warming.

6. A tidal power barrage will provide the means to regulate sea levels in the Bay and protect those sensitive areas, while safeguarding coastal communities from tidal flooding and delivering predictable, emission-free power.

7. The Morecambe Bay/Duddon tidal power scheme will assist the Government’s levelling-up commitments by delivering a new shorter road link between Lancashire and South and West Cumbria, a new turbine manufacturing industry established in the north west with nationwide supply chain, and the creation of thousands of high value jobs.

8. The project has attracted the support of local authorities bordering Morecambe Bay and on Cumbria’s West Coast along with MPs and Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership. Discussions have also taken place with major business interests including BAE Systems, Holker Estates, and Associated British Ports.

9. The Northern Tidal Power Gateways group has already invested almost £1 million in the project working with Mott Macdonald to prepare its case for the UK Treasury. The project now requires Government backing to fund research into the impact of the development on the environment, undertake more extensive stakeholder engagement, and develop detailed plans for methods of modular construction to be used to create turbine housings, and other elements of the project.

10. Once the project is market-ready it will attract green investment from UK funds and around the world. The financial case for the scheme envisions benefits to the UK of more than £1 billion each year in terms of jobs, economic growth and a new supply chain, improved transport connectivity, cost effective renewable power, flood control and protection of sensitive wildlife environments.