Debating+online.


 * A scientist writes...**

Recently the Government announced that it would not be putting any public funding into a project to build an energy generating scheme in the River Severn in the South West of England. Responses have varied - as one would expect for a scheme where so many parties have vested interests. The news has largely been welcomed by conservation groups fearing damage to habitats and wildlife and even by many exponents of green energy. On the other hand, the Institute of Civil Engineers are disappointed as is, perhaps more surprisingly, environmentalist Jonathan Porritt. As one might expect, the deciding factors have been economic; in terms of pence-per-kilowatt hour over the duration of a business plan, the schemes don't seem to be able to generate electricity economically enough. A cynical spectator might choose to believe that the conservation arguments have played second fiddle to that central truth but that they make a convenient dressing for a decision that has already been made. It is perhaps worth asking, though, whether the decision might yet prove to be short-sighted. It seems inevitable that in the foreseeable future, energy demand is going to rise. As much as environmentalists might claim that it is a better idea to reduce 5% of energy consumption than to generate it with a Severn Barrage, our history is not littered with examples of mankind curbing his appetites. Where can we generate our energy? Fossil fuels are simply not a sustainable option. Not because of climate (although this is a big issue) but simply because they are running out. The Energy Return On Investment (EROI) for oil - essentially a measure of how many barrels of oil you can extract with the energy from one barrel of oil - has fallen from around 100 in 1930 to below 20 in 2000 (source:The Oil Drum). Recent events in Fukushima have raised severe doubts about the future of nuclear power - ignoring the already known facts that Uranium is not a renewable energy source and that there is a growing reserve of nuclear waste in the North of the UK that nobody wants. Added to this, recent evidence in the John Muir report that wind power doesn't work anything like as well as expected and a recent report in the New Scientist suggested that it may be impossible to extract enough energy from wind, wave and solar generation to meet current consumption without destabilising the climate. The decision about the Severn Estuary has been made based on the assumption that the global economy will continue to roll on much as it has in the past and that viable alternatives to tidal generation of energy will be available. Any reading on the phenomenon of 'Peak Oil', however, will demonstrate how closely economic prosperity and oil are and there is mounting evidence that the 'easy' alternatives to fossil fuels are not so simple. (Disclaimer: peak oil articles tend a little towards the doomsday scenario and may well imply a more immediate end of the world than is readily apparent. Nobody denies, however, that oil will run out. Most 'debunking' articles focus on the fact that there's still money to be made from oil for a few decades yet.) So perhaps the issue for the Severn energy debate is about long-term energy security and sustainability. Many of the technologies suggested for capturing energy from the Severn's unusually high tidal range are tried and trusted, not experimental. A barrage would be easy to service and maintain and there's no reason that it couldn't generate electricity for hundreds of years. It's my opinion that the matter has been dismissed too soon.

Read the blog article and the attached resources and respond to the article with a discussion comment. Your comment should be relevant and contain a reference to at least one other source of information - it should not just be unqualified opinion.
 * Your task.**

The Institute of Civil Engineers' response to the decision about funding for a Severn Estuary Energy scheme. Executive summary of the Sustainable Development Commission's report into Tidal energy in the UK:

Website of pressure group 'Save our Severn'.

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