Welsh Government invests in tidal

[dan_b]

https://nation.cymru/news/welsh-governm ... y-project/

The Welsh Government has bought a stake in what will become the largest consented tidal energy project in Europe.
Menter Môn, the Morlais tidal scheme, owned and managed by Ynys Môn social enterprise, is the first of its kind anywhere in the world and will be operational from 2026.

Interesting - need to find out more about this project!

[Stinsy]

I’m grumpy about this. They’ll probably spend a huge amount of money, ruin vast animal habitat and generate less than if they’d spent the same money on wind/solar.

[AE-NMidlands]

maybe - but they did give GF a helping hand. Let's hope this turns out as well as that did.

[Moxi]

Well the site already exists as a test bed centre, they obviously need to expand to do more work so this seems like a reasonable cash injection by the government, it seems to be as, if not more reasonable than the 60 million the UK government just gave to fusion research - but then apparently the the big breakthrough in fusion is just around the corner - again

8 million is about the cost of the power infrastructure upgrade that's required so Yns Mon will benefit regardless and if the tidal streams prove effective it could be a quicker move to power sources that are immune to dunkelflaute - faster, maybe but deffo cleaner than nuclear and SMR's at any rate.

Mind you I am biased as I think hydro and tidal have much more to offer us in terms of energy resilience.

Moxi

[dan_b]

I was wondering about that - given that Anglesey used to host a nuclear power station at Wylfa, there must be a pretty chunky grid connection up there already for them to plug into?

Although I guess if the Govt decides to go ahead with another new nuclear build at Wylfa, as is often mooted, they'll need to beef it up anyway?

[Moxi]

The Wylfa transformers and grid connection is quite a way to the North of the Morlais site so I think this may be a more local upgrade as I dont think 8 million would get a full cable upgrade all the way over to Wylfa? could be wrong though, we would need to see the scope of work to be certain.

Good pollack and mackerel marks around the Morolais part of the coast and excellent for kayaking too.

Moxi