Second Tidal Lagoon for Wales

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The company behind plans for the world's largest tidal lagoon power project in Swansea Bay, Wales, is planning another major project in nearby Cardiff Bay.

Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd. (TLP) has announced plans for a tidal lagoon with the potential to supply up to 250 megawatts (MW) of electricity located at Cardiff Bay. It is marginally bigger than the company's first project, the 240-MW tidal scheme planned for Swansea Bay which is currently being examined by the U.K.'s Planning Inspectorate before a recommendation is made to the government this year.

The new scheme will be located between Cardiff and Newport, with a seawall attached to the foreshore, at its western extent approximately 2 kilometres (km) from the entrance to Cardiff Bay and at its eastern extent approximately 2km from the mouth of the River Usk. The furthest offshore extent is approximately 8km from the foreshore to the centre of the Severn Estuary.

"Our intention is to develop a fleet of five full-scale tidal lagoons that, together with the flagship Swansea Bay project, could provide 8% of the U.K.'s electricity," said Tidal Lagoon Power in a statement. "In addition to our early consultation work in Colwyn Bay, a site at Cardiff is currently being examined in further detail. Now that an initial meeting has been held with the Planning Inspectorate, the Cardiff site features on the National Infrastructure Planning Portal. The project is pre-application and our focus is currently on environmental and engineering feasibility and local community opinion. Further details on this and other projects will become available later in the year."

The company expects to submit a planning application for the project in 2017.

The existing Swansea Bay scheme is a €752 million project ($986 million) project that will see the construction of a 9.5km-long, U-shaped, seawall running from the entrance to the River Tawe near Swansea Dock out to sea before curving back to re-join land adjacent to Swansea University. It will have a rated capacity of 240 MW and generate enough power for 121,000 homes.

Last July, a report conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) found that if a proposed six tidal lagoons were built around the U.K. coastline, they would deliver €34 billion ($40 billion) over the construction period 2015-27, create up to 71,000 jobs, generate enough power for approximately 8 million homes and offer a financial return of more than €3.8 billion a year over their 120-year lifecycle. For additional information, see July 23, 2014, article - Tidal Lagoons Could Make Big Splash in U.K..

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