Seven Barrage

[Ken Davison South Wales]

I have just read an article supporting a proposed Seven Barrage and was amazed by the negative attitude of those organisations below

 

However environmental groups WWF, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Friends of the Earth Cymru are opposed to the plan, saying there are other technologies which could be used in the Severn estuary with a much lower environmental impact.

 

With the current world oil shortage, pollution etc one wonders how these people can be so blinkered.

 

With rising water levels the enviroments they are trying to protect will be lost anyway, why are they so short sighted.

 

I remember when Chew and Blagdon were created there was a simular outburst, today however they hold them up as one of their GREAT SUCCESSES, what a joke they are.

 

OK spat over, flack jacket and helmet on Do your worst

[Colin Brett]

I have just read an article supporting a proposed Seven Barrage and was amazed by the negative attitude of those organisations below

With the current world oil shortage, pollution etc one wonders how these people can be so blinkered.

 

With rising water levels the enviroments they are trying to protect will be lost anyway, why are they so short sighted.

 

I remember when Chew and Blagdon were created there was a simular outburst, today however they hold them up as one of their GREAT SUCCESSES, what a joke they are.

 

OK spat over, flack jacket and helmet on Do your worst

Ken,

 

I assume the barrage will incorporate some sort of tidal power generator?

 

Tidal power is the one constant source of power we have other than the Sun. Even the sun isn't that constant.

Wind power is overated and over subsidised.

Bring on tidal power stations.

 

I'm in the air raid shelter with you Ken.

 

Colin

Edited April 11, 2006 by Colin Brett

[jedibond]

Budge over guys, I'm joining you too !

 

You just can't please some people can you ???

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Yes it does incorporate tidal power that forms the main theme, plus a new road and rail link, two marinias plus out of sight wind farms.

 

I know things will change but the benefits are wholesale, it will control the flooding in the Seven Valley and other coastal areas saving millions of tax payers money and lowering house insurance for thousands of homes.

 

It will also create more stable wetlands for the birds, plus a vast area of inshore fishing could and should become a RSA reserve.

 

I cannot find any real downside to the proposal, fish will obviously be provided with access to and from the enclosed area.

 

There will be short term disruption for sure but the long term benefits are what we need most. Add to that all the short and long term employment it has to be a winner and hopefully more will follow in other areas.

[billy5000]

Hi all

 

with all the ice melting they are going to need to make sure we can control the flow but its all costly and put off till sh~t hits the fan then they will complain that they didnt get the right channels sorted to conclude an appropriate action(red tape)

 

hose pipe bans with all this ice melting+water shortages ummmm

 

:)

 

rant over and probably off topic:):sorry

 

sg

[Ken L]

Why is it that that the only way of generating tidal power that ever seems to be considered is a barrage with turbines ?

At best, this can only generate energy for a third of each tidal cycle and so those coal fired stations need to be kept running to fill the gaps.

[RobStubbs]

Why is it that that the only way of generating tidal power that ever seems to be considered is a barrage with turbines ?

At best, this can only generate energy for a third of each tidal cycle and so those coal fired stations need to be kept running to fill the gaps.

 

I think you'll find you can store the energy in batteries as well. Don't know how many barrages you'd need but presumably a lot (and more than a few duracells )

 

Is tidal power the same as wave ? I presume not but presumably you could combine them somehow (?)

 

Rob.

Edited April 11, 2006 by RobStubbs

[corydoras]

I think you'll find you can store the energy in batteries as well. Don't know how many barrages you'd need but presumably a lot (and more than a few duracells )

 

Is tidal power the same as wave ? I presume not but presumably you could combine them somehow (?)

 

Rob.

This is one of the bits about electrical generation/supply business that most consumers and a lot of environmentalists don't get. I used to work for the Renewables division for one of our larger generators so I know a wee bit about this. We will probably ALWAYS have to produce some electricity from burning something, or from nuclear because electricity CANNOT be easily stored economically, and neither wind or wave can generate 24/7.

 

The main method of storing electricity in the UK is a pumped hydro system. Thats fine for us Scots and the Welsh, but does not help much in England becase you need lots of water and high mountains to build pumped hydro storage.

 

I would bet on countries in places with high geothermal activity, Iceland springs to mind, becoming big exporters of electricity in the future. They could use hot wet rocks (a type of geothermal heat extraction technique) to make 'free' electricity and sell it to us over a cable or they could use the electricity produced to generate hydrogen by electrolysis.

[Guest rabbit]

I have just read an article supporting a proposed Seven Barrage and was amazed by the negative attitude of those organisations below

With the current world oil shortage, pollution etc one wonders how these people can be so blinkered.

 

With rising water levels the enviroments they are trying to protect will be lost anyway, why are they so short sighted.

 

I remember when Chew and Blagdon were created there was a simular outburst, today however they hold them up as one of their GREAT SUCCESSES, what a joke they are.

 

OK spat over, flack jacket and helmet on Do your worst

Where are they proposing to put these seven barrages Ken also would that be enough?

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Where are they proposing to put these sevenbarrages Ken also would that be enough?

 

One ten mile barrage across the Seven Estuary / Bristol Channel just west of Cardiff to just west of Bristol.

 

As I understand it by controlling the flow the turbines can work almost continuously with only a short break, the area also has the benefit of a lot of air currents so the wind farm would be well placed. You can also form lagoons which will generate power at different states of the tide, plus underwater free standing turbines which work with the flow in either direction. If they went the full monty and deployed the full range of ideas it would be equal to three or four nuke power stations.

 

Again as I understand it there are several places around the UK where this type of power generation could be viable. With the cost of fuel going up these renewables are looking increasingly good, shame we had to screw things up in the first place.