Combined tidal barrage and bridge plan moves a step closer.

The idea of a combined bridge, tidal barrage and possibly power connection linking Barrow and Millom with Lancashire grow a step closer this week according to the North West Evening Mail.

Ideas along these lines have been supported for some years by local politicians from most political parties (though not, as we learned at the Millom hustings on Sunday, the greens)

The Northern Tidal Power Gateways scheme would use a series of tidal turbines to stretch around Morecambe Bay while giving motorists a long-awaited link between the M6 and Barrow and Millom.

The Northern Tidal Power Gateways project is led by Alan Torevell, chair of Dewhurst Torevell, who said this week:

"It is hoped that before the end of Autumn 2017 there will be sufficient confidence to move into the feasibility phase of the project, where all the necessary planning requirements will need to be met and any remaining environmental concerns alleviated, to enable a start to be made."

In the project's latest stage, engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald has been appointed to analyse how the wider economic benefits of the scheme can be captured and realised.

Initial studies have found that the gateway at Morecambe Bay could produce 6,500GWh of electricity a year - enough to power 1.5 million homes, while the Duddon Estuary gateway, across to Millom, could generate around 100GWh of electricity each year, the equivalent of powering 25,000 homes.

You can read the full NWEM article  here.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Moorside is designed to dump that much energy in the Irish sea. It's a low carbon direct ocean heater.
Chris Whiteside said…
Point. However, the gateway projects would not be dependent on Moorside going ahead.

Cumbria will need extra grid connectivity even if Moorside were not to happen, which of course I hope it does. Because of all the power generated when the wind is blowing at appropriate speeds by the huge number of offshore wind turbines approved in the Irish sea which have been or are being built, we would need to double the present connection capacity to the grid even without Moorside.

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