Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) — Prudential Plc, the largest U.K.
insurer by market value, today said it’s investing in the
construction of a tidal lagoon power plant that may generate as
much as 8 percent of Britain’s electricity.
Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay Plc is building the 320-megawatt
facility across Swansea Bay in Wales that’s expected to cost
about 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion), the London-based insurer
said today in an e-mailed statement. Prudential may invest as
much as 100 million pounds.
“Such investments provide our customers with strong and
sustainable returns, create good jobs and increase productivity
and economic competitiveness,” Prudential Chief Executive
Officer Tidjane Thiam 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, considered to be less damaging
to the environment than tidal barrages. The U.K. last year
rejected plans for a barrage across the Severn River.
Construction of the project should begin next year and it’s
expected to start working in 2018, when it will produce more
than 495 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually for 120 years.
Good Energy Group Plc, a British renewable-power supplier, in
May invested 500,000 pounds in Tidal Lagoon.
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
Ana Monteiro, Randall Hackley