The bed of the River Severn is littered with a dozen or more failed schemes to harness the estuary’s tidal power into the sort of megawattage that would power a city the size of Bristol. That is not stopping companies from trying, though. The latest plan is a 12-mile tidal fence that comes with its own industrial strategy: massive submerged rotors that would need so much carbon fibre that Britain could become a global force in composites production for the renewable energy as well as the automotive and aerospace industries. Kepler Energy, a business spun out of the University of Oxford and named after the 17th-century German astronomer, is hoping to hear soon that it has received £15 million from the Welsh government to set up a demonstration plant off Anglesey.
Times 17th Oct 2016 read more »