The Government is expected to announce today that the proposed Severn Barrage scheme to generate renewable energy is to be scrapped.
According to the BBC, Secretary of State for Energy Chris Huhne is expected to announce todayi n Parliament that the proposed Severn Barrage scheme to generate renewable energy is to be scrapped. The controversial scheme - which could cost up to £20 billion according to some estimates - has been deemed not financially viable. Withouit public sector funding, the private sector is unlikely to come forward with the levels of investment needed to finance the scheme.
Mr. Huhn is instead expected to give the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear power plants - although according to the report the Department for Energy and Climate Change was unable to confirm or deny this.
Supporters of the scheme say the Barrage is essential to meeting the UK's renewable energy requirements - the Government now believes that this will not be required until 2020 at the earliest. Environmentalists who oppose the scheme say it would lead to the destruction of internationally important conservation areas, home to thousands of breeding birds and other wildlife.
Known as the Cardiff-Weston barrage, the 10-mile barrage proposal is one of five shortlisted schemes. The barrage would harness water power via a hydro-electric dam to harness renewable energy from the Severn Estuary, which has the second-largest tidal range in the world with 42ft (12.8m) tides.
With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, then environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”
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Barhale has completed work on two separate Rapid Action Taskforce Spills projects it is carrying out for Severn Trent.
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