Severn Barrage Project: Clean Electricity at Too High a Cost

Britain’s proposed Severn Barrage project, a dam-like structure to be built across an estuary in western England to provide clean electricity, is being roundly decried as a waste of resources in a report funded by 10 NGOs, including the Worldwide Fund for Nature. The 10-mile tidal barrage would be “one of the most expensive options for clean energy there is,” the report’s author says. The project, which is part of an attempt to boost renewable energy production by 10-fold by 2012 in accordance with European Union policies, would cost an estimated 15 billion pounds ”“ money the report’s author said would be better spent on conventional renewables like solar and wind. The study did not take into account the ecological damage that environmental groups say the barrage would likely cause to the delicate wetland ecosystem.