NEWS UPDATE
20 MAY 2013
TIDAL LAGOON POWER TO BEGIN SEABED INVESTIGATION WORKS ON SITE IN SWANSEA
Geotechnical investigation work for the proposed tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay is about to begin as
Tidal Lagoon Power Plc starts the process of determining seabed conditions in the area.
Undertaken by contractor ESG, Environmental Scientifics Group, the seabed investigation work will
be carried out over a four week period via vessels and a jack-up barge. Results will determine
physical characteristics in order that plans for the world’s first, purpose-built, tidal lagoon power plant
can be further progressed.
Capable of generating electricity equivalent to Swansea’s entire domestic consumption, the proposed
250MW power plant will produce predictable, baseload electricity for 16 hours each day, using both
the ebb and flood tides. It will save over 200,000 tonnes of CO 2 per year for its design life of over 100
years.
The project represents an investment of £650 million, and according to the development company
behind the scheme is a significant opportunity for Wales to take the lead in the tidal industry for the
UK. The power plant could be connected to the National Grid and be ‘power ready’ in 2017.
Ton Fijen, Technical Director for Tidal Lagoon Power plc says: “The Swansea project will hopefully be
the first in a network of lagoons around the UK coastline, driving a critical change in our energy mix
with low cost, low carbon electricity sources that are sustainable long-term.”
“Detailed plans for the lagoon are now being finalised prior to beginning formal consultation in
summer 2013. Our intention, subject to design readiness, is to submit an application for development
consent to the Planning Inspectorate in the late autumn of 2013. These investigation works are an
important step in this process as the results will be used to determine our engineering strategy.”
Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon is being promoted and developed by Tidal Lagoon Power Limited (TLP).
TLP’s focus is the development of a series of tidal lagoons to generate renewable energy from the
rise and fall of the considerable tidal range to be found in Welsh and UK waters.
ENDS
ABOUT TIDAL LAGOON POWER LIMITED
The company is privately funded and founded by Mark Shorrock, CEO. Mark is a pioneering
entrepreneur in renewables who has founded four companies including Wind Energy Ltd, a Scottishbased developer of wind farms. Mark grew Wind Energy Ltd into the largest independent developer of
wind farms in the UK with over 650MW of wind farms moving through the planning process. In 2006,
Mark founded Low Carbon Investors, investment manager of the AIM listed Low Carbon Accelerator
fund which he also founded. In 2008, he founded Low Carbon Solar Holdings, a private investment
vehicle currently investing in solar power plants in Spain. Prior to founding TLP, Mark was a founder
of Low Carbon Solar which, in 2011, developed and funded the deployment of £70m of solar energy,
totalling 28MW.
Our project is steered by a governance board comprising the UK's leading experts in major
infrastructure projects, delivery and engineering, to ensure a regular challenge to our approach and a
rigorous programme of due diligence throughout the development programme.
The vision of the business is to deliver 10,000MW of power from the tidal range in the UK and thus
change the energy mix to home-grown, low carbon energy that creates local jobs, cheap power and
local long term amenities for the communities who host the lagoons.
TIDAL RANGE TECHNOLOGY
Tidal range schemes differ from ‘tidal stream’ technology in their use of head to generate power. Tidal
stream technologies generate power using water velocity arising from currents, which is less efficient
and requires very large machines to produce relatively small amounts of power. Tidal range, on the
other hand, uses exactly the same head principle as normal run-of-river hydro schemes to produce
energy and therefore the turbine technology is very similar i.e. robust, efficient and proven. Tidal
range lagoons also offer the opportunity to control the direction and velocity of the water flows that are
harnessed.
GLOBAL TIDAL RANGE RESOURCE
There are currently three large scale uni-directional tidal range plants in operation: Annapolis in the
Bay of Fundy, Canada (30MW), La Rance in Brittany, France (240MW) and Sihwa in Korea (254MW).
There are also experimental tidal range energy projects being tested in Russia, UK, Australia, USA,
Argentina, Canada, India, Korea and Mexico. Potential sites for tidal range energy projects include the
UK, France, Eastern Canada, Pacific coast of Russia, Korea, China, Mexico and Chile. Other sites
have been identified along the Patagonian coast of Argentina, Western Australia and Western India.
In total, 70% of the Earth’s surface is ocean and 500,000km2 of that offers 4m+ of tidal range.
WHY SWANSEA?
Swansea Bay has been chosen as it offers the necessary conditions for building lagoons – the water
must be shallow and the tidal range must be large. The Severn Estuary holds the second highest tidal
range in the world and Swansea Bay reaches a range of just over 10m. As well as benefitting from
this key characteristic, Swansea has a gently sloping seabed (suitable for this construction method)
and proximity to a population centre, such that transmission losses are minimised from the electricity
produced.
The multi-million pound development will comprise a sand core seawall and hydro turbines mounted
in a concrete turbine housing. The seawall will use sandy materials gained from the seabed within the
lagoon footprint which are hydraulically filled into long geotextile casings 5m in diameter. On top of
these Geotubes® (a product of TenCate) and compacted sand fill are placed small rocks and on top
of the small rocks, larger rock armour to protect the structure against degradation from the marine
environment, sun and weather.
OUR PARTNERS
The key consultants and contractors that are working on the project are:
Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd – renewable energy development and project management

Atkins Global – design, engineering and project management

Van Oord – dredging, marine engineering and offshore projects

TenCate – textiles technology, Geotubes®

Costain Ltd – marine contracting

Sgurr Energy – financier’s technical assessment

Turbo Institute – turbine technology and development

KGAL – gates and turbines experts

LDA Design – onshore master planning and landscape design

Titan Surveys – sub-sea surveys

IntertekMetoc – water quality modelling

Associated British Ports Marine Environmental Research (ABPmer) – coastal process
modelling and marine ecology
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
As part of the Environmental Impact Assessment, TLP has commissioned independent experts to
conduct detailed water quality, wave and coastal process modelling in order to understand the
potential impacts of the lagoon during construction and operation. From this understanding, we can
integrate impact minimisation and mitigation measures into the project prior to submission of the
application for consent. During the course of the EIA baseline a range of surveys are being
undertaken including:

Geophysical survey of the lagoon footprint

Preliminary geotechnical survey

Oceanographic (wave and current) survey

Winter and summer bird surveys

Seasonal fish surveys

Phase 1 intertidal ecology survey

Phase 1 terrestrial ecology survey.

Subtidal benthic characterisation survey
Areas under study:

Coastal processes, sediment transport and contamination

Marine water quality, Water Framework Directive

Intertidal and sub-tidal benthic ecology

Fish, recreational and commercial fisheries

Marine mammals

Coastal birds

Habitat Regulation Assessment

Navigation and marine transport assessment

Terrestrial ecology

Seascape and visual amenity impact assessment

Onshore transport assessment and air quality

Economy, tourism and recreation

Marine and terrestrial noise assessment

Flood risk assessment

Land quality assessment

Marine and terrestrial archaeology, and historic landscape
PRESS INFORMATION
All press enquiries should be directed to Lisa Jenkins on 0790 873 8763 or email
lisa.jenkins@tidallagoonpower.com
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