A company has started planning to build a huge lagoon power plant that stretches several miles into the open seas to harness the tidal energy and convert it into electricity. The huge power plants, four will be in Wales and some in Cumbria and Somerset, will be used to generate power by acquiring tides beyond the sea walls by the use of the water's weight to push the turbines around and generate electricity.
A £1billion building project in Swansea is already in the planning stage. Tidal Lagoon Power is the company behind the plant is hoping to be able to build six and generate eight percent of the United Kingdom's power consumption, according to The Independent UK.
The six lagoons are to capture incoming and outgoing waves, the Swansea scheme is expected to be able to produce energy for about 155,000 homes. Ed Davey, Energy Secretary of UK, stated that he is willing to back the project.
The price of generating the power from the Swansea project will be very high however the company behind the said project is confident that subsequent lagoons will be able to generate cheaper electricity.
For an investment of £30bn, the series of six lagoons can generate eight percent of the country's electricity usage.
Besides Swansea, the other proposed lagoon sites are Cardiff, Newport, and Colwyn Bay in Wales; Bridgwater in Somerset; and West Cumbria.
The Swansea location will have a five mile sea wall stretch and needs to reach about two miles out to sea. The funding of these sea walls will come from electricity payers from the existing government to support home grown and low carbon energy, reported BBC News.