Swansea delay highlights government’s energy confusion

Earlier today it was announced that Swansea Bay’s tidal lagoon project will be delayed for a year while negotiations between the UK government and Tidal Lagoon Power (TLP) continue. Despite receiving backing from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in June, construction on the £1bn scheme is being put back 12 months to spring 2017.

While the cost of construction is certainly not to be sneezed at, it’s the cost of the electricity produced that appears to be the major sticking point. At £168 per megawatt hour, this is over 50 per cent higher than the nuclear power that will be generated by Hinkley C. On first glance this looks extortionate, but we need to remember that Swansea is being built as a proof of concept. If successful it could be used as a template from which to establish a series of bigger, more economically efficient, lagoon projects that could help power the national grid for the next century.