2015 DHI UK & Ireland Symposium
Towards a British Isles Strategy for Tidal Range and Coastal Adaptation
Stuart Anderson (Conwy County Borough Council),
Tuesday 21 April 2015 at 15:40 - 16:00
Stuart has a long history with tides on the North Wales coast, working with a number of high level, and high profile, projects including MAREN2. He will present his thoughts and experiences on works carried out and proposed for combining coastal protection with tidal range schemes.
Towards a British Isles Strategy for Tidal Range and Coastal Adaptation - Stuart Anderson (Conwy County Borough Council)
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1. North Wales’ coastal vision to 2050 & beyond...
‘The immediate need is for secure and reliable sources of
energy to keep the light of civilisation burning and in the
preparation of our sea defences against rising sea levels’
- James Lovelock in The Revenge of Gaia, 2006 -
2. British Isles’ clean energy blind spot
(i) ‘Twin drivers’ apply: clean energy & defence
of coastal town and transport infrastructure
(ii) Tidal range energy extractable from Irish
Sea (N Wales + Mersey + Morecambe Bay
+ Solway Firth etc) exceeds that of Severn
Estuary + Bristol Channel by around 2:1
(iii) Value of tidal energy reinforced by its
predictability, and alignment with likely
uses e.g. for green transport.
(iv) Value further reinforced by
N Wales’ centrality and other
key grid factors - e.g. likely
need for, and availability
of, big new conventional
pumped storage sites.
Regional heritage built to help
link or defend the British Isles:
(i) Thomas Telford (1826): the
Menai suspension bridge was
built to improve links to Ireland.
(ii) George Garrett (1879): ‘Resurgam’
submarine, built at Birkenhead, sunk Feb
1880 off Rhyl after her maiden voyage.
(iii) Iorys Hughes (1941-43): re-using D-Day
Mulberry caissons prototyped at Conwy, 1948
Netherlands polder repair (above) led to new
tunnel and tidal barrage construction methods.
Just as the blind spot is nearly central to our
human field of vision, the Irish Sea Maritime
Area (heavily dotted circle in map R) is key to
a coherent ‘Energy Islands’ strategy, since:-
3. Strategic Resource Assessment
(i) 33 GW of offshore wind farm capacity is
presently planned, 90% in the North Sea.
(ii) ‘Energy Islands’ can aim at 50-60GW
of marine RE capacity - 80% from tidal
range, but only 15% from the N Sea.
(iii) Multi-stakeholder leadership
is key to filling in the strategic
blind spot - by prioritising
adaptation and mitigation
over short term targets.
4. North Wales pilot tidal
scheme’s centrality
helps ensure:-
Business focus
plus academic,
political & public
engagement
Beacon project
status, catalysing
market preparation
in UK and elsewhere
Double arrows ( ):
show some key rail electrification desire lines,
for which wind power is of less predictable
value - as also for road transport electrification.
‘A clear idea of where we are going as a world will make action at the individual, community
and country level much easier and more coherent’ (Sir Nicholas Stern, 2007)
(v) Development of
fishing, aquaculture,
maritime leisure,
coastal cycle and
heritage trails etc by
all four British Isles
nations offers the
chance to help bring
back to life an ancient
Celtic vision, perhaps
now dormant more from
neglect than mistrust…......
Irish Sea Maritime Energy Park?
One response is that this idea cannot be realised.
for the number of countries involved. The counter-
point is that ‘visions remain dreams until they are
shared’ (Henry James) - so sharing is creating!
From the 6-8 sq km Llanddulas pilot tidal impoundment follow four others,
eventually enclosing 700 sq km of seabed, at 60% net energy extraction
yielding an average 3 GW – on a par with Wylfa B and 50% more than
a conventional Severn Barrage……
DECC’s SW Region ‘Marine Energy Park’
‘Business-as-usual……. will lead to disastrous sea level rises on the century time scale’ (James Hansen, 2008))