£4 billion scheme plans to harness the power of the sea
April 16, 2010 at 3:52 am
Exciting new plans have been proposed which aim to turn Scotland into the ‘Saudi Arabia’ of renewable power. The £4 billion scheme includes development at 10 different locations around the Scottish coast and aims to produce enough energy to power 750,000 homes.
Using a mixture of tidal power and wave production plants, the developments, which are scheduled for completion in 2020, will produce a total of 1.2 GW of energy.
Alex Salmond, first minister of Scotland, praised the announcement stating his belief that the proposed plans were a clear indicator of the rich natural resources available in the coastal waters of Scotland.
Salmond also pointed out that the leases for the sites attracted some of the world’s biggest energy companies, hailing this as evidence that Scotland would be a force to be reckoned with in the renewable energy sector for years to come.
The leases were provided by the Crown Estate, an independent group that owns the rights to all the water 12 nautical miles from the UK coastline.
The leases have been taken up by some of the UK’s largest energy providers, including Scottish and Southern Energy, E.ON and Scottish Power. They are seen by Salmond as just the first step in the battle to combat the United Kingdom’s reliance on non-renewable energy sources.
Salmond stated that some estimates showed that 60 GW of energy could be produced from the sea (10 times more power than is required to power Scotland annually), with other studies suggesting that harnessing the power of Scottish coastal waters could produce enough energy to power one third of the United Kingdom.
Along with recent plans to build more offshore wind farms, the Scottish government has estimated that its attempts to turn Scotland into a powerhouse of green energy could create more than 20,000 new jobs.
The announcement has also led to plans for a £20 million investment by Orkney council which will develop the island’s harbours and ports, so they can handle the increased influx of heavy machinery, workers and ships which the new sites will lead to.
It is hoped that the decision to develop these 10 sites will pioneer the belief that the world can subsist solely on renewable fuels, and that by harnessing the power of the sea we can go a long way to building a sustainable future.
Rivers could power 850,000 homes
April 1, 2010 at 2:41 am
With the rise of global warming, the government is having to do more to find ways to generate greater quantities of renewable energy. Now a huge study has been made into the rivers of England and Wales and has managed to identify a large number of locations where hydroelectric schemes could be introduced to produce green power.
The study, published by the Environment Agency, has identified 26,000 locations right across the country. Spots on the Thames, the Severn and the Neath could all see hydroelectric schemes introduced. Should all of the locations end up getting developed, they would be able to provide enough energy to power up to 850,000 homes across the UK – that’s 1.5% of the total energy needs of the country.
However, the study has been criticised by a number of groups, including fishing and countryside awareness campaigners. The main fears seem to be over the effect that the turbines will have on the appearance of the landscape, and on the ways that changes to the rivers could affect the behaviour of migrating fish.
The Environment Agency has replied to these concerns by confirming that for many of the locations highlighted in the study, about half of the total, strict measures would have to be taken to ensure that the wildlife and surrounding environment would be protected.
However, out of all the possible locations, about 5,000 of them could be developed easily. This would still provide a large amount of green energy that would go some way to helping to protect the planet from global warming.
