Planning for tidal lagoon power station

The environmental firm will support project developer, Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay (TLSB), through the provision of specialist Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) consenting advice. SLR will also prepare the project’s support planning statement with help from the client’s legal advisors, DLA Piper.

A total of £10m is required for the pre-planning development phase of the project, while a further £750m will be needed for the lagoon build.

Mark Shorrock, chief executive of TLSB, told Maritime Journal: “It had been anticipated that our £750m capital raise would commence in earnest post-planning submission. However, the company has received significant interest from specialist infrastructure funding parties interested in funding a series of tidal lagoons.

“The attraction to investors of marine hydro plants is the certainty of output, the robust guarantees from large scale Original Equipment Manufacturers and, relative to other technologies, the low operations and maintenance requirements,”.

TLSB told MJ it expects the capital structure for the lagoon to be made up of specialist sector infrastructure investors.

In addition, export credit guarantees are expected from the French and German governments, which may be available for up to 85% of the value of the project due to the involvement of manufacturers Alstom and Voith.

Once completed, the power station will be capable of generating 240MW of renewable energy on both the flood and ebb tide, providing enough electricity for all of Swansea’s domestic use.