(Bloomberg) — Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd., a U.K. marine-energy developer, is planning its second project, a 2.8-gigawatt
power plant that will use the tides to generate enough
electricity for every home in Wales.
The company submitted an environmental impact assessment
for the marine power plant that would use 90 turbines installed
between Cardiff and Newport, according to an e-mailed statement
Monday. The closely held company expects to submit a full
planning application in 2017 and the project may go into
operation in 2022.
“Full-scale tidal lagoon infrastructure gives the U.K. an
opportunity to generate electricity from our amazing tidal range
at a cost comparable to fossil fuel or nuclear generation,”
Mark Sharrock, chief executive of Gloucester, U.K.-based Tidal
Lagoon Power, said in the statement.
Tidal lagoons are areas of water separated from the rest of
the sea. In a tidal-power plant, water is trapped and released
from the lagoon through turbines, a design considered to be less
damaging to the environment than tidal barrages, which are
similar to dams. The U.K. in 2013 rejected plans for a barrage
across the Severn River, in the southwest U.K.
The company is currently awaiting final consent for its
320-megawatt project in Swansea Bay, in Wales. InfraRed Capital
Partners Ltd. and Prudential Plc are both equity investors in
the 1 billion-pound plant. Once approved, construction should
start later this year and the facility is expected to go into
operation in 2018.
Tidal Lagoon also Monday said it’s started early
feasibility work on four other tidal-lagoon power projects in
the U.K., at Newport, West Cumbria, Colwyn Bay and Bridgwater
Bay. If all six planned facilities are built they could supply
as much as 8 percent of the country’s electricity.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Louise Downing in London at
ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Will Wade, Robin Saponar