Tidal power will be better than nuclear

Harnessing the tides avoids a need for nuclear


I WAS privileged to be invited by a member of the Stroud area Green Party to join her, at a meeting on July 28, of the Oldbury Stakeholders Group, concerning the progress being monitored towards the replacement of the old nuclear power station, for so long a prominent feature of that part of Severnside.

I booked myself in as a representative of SERA, the Bristol and South West branch of the Socialist Environment & Resources Association; and in anticipation of the possible agenda of the meeting, I took along with me a copy of that day's Evening Post business section carrying a 'front' page feature on the SeaGen – a submerged turbine power generation system pionered by a South Gloucestershire company, Marine Current Turbines.

Two or three years ago, SERA, at one of its monthly meetings, hosted MCT's chief engineer who, with a Power-point lecture, impressed our group overwhelmingly of the benefits and advantages of her company's product, qualified only by the system being under development and not yet proven beyond economic superiority by comparison with the better-known energy technologies. The Post business article suggests that MCT, with its £250,000 grant is closer than ever to achieving that superiority.

During the Oldbury meeting, a gentleman seated opposite me told us that he had calculated rating figures for the pros and cons of the energy generation sources, with nuclear rating higher than coal and oil, but maybe not gas, and fired off a few figures to make his case.

At that point, while holding up the Post article, I asked, through the Chair, whether he would be prepared to offer a figure for MCT. In support, I said: "Every day around our shores, millions, no billions, of tonnes of water are shifted to and fro at 13 hour cycles.

"Intercepting those massive flows of tidal water with submerged turbines seems to me to be a wonderfully efficient means of generating electricity as well as being as green as green can be. No fuel, no waste, no waste disposal, no massive infrastructures, no despoliation of our landscapes."

Several of the attendees asked for a quick peek at the article; the Chairman himself declared his intention to obtain a copy.

I am hopeful that the food for thought created by my raising of this issue will have a spin off for the better in sites elsewhere around the country, where the residents are rightfully worried about the implications, green or otherwise, of nuclear power and wind farms.

The uphill factor might be persuading politicians.

Bernard J Seward
Bristol & S W SERA.