New tidal lagoon could transform rural Somerset coast and produce power for longer than Hinkley Point C
Building a tidal lagoon on the west Somerset coast could produce clean energy for twice as long as Hinkley Point C, according to the local MP. Somerset's new nuclear power station is expected to be operational by the end of the decade, and could provide up to seven per cent of the UK's power needs once fully up and running.
Tiverton and Minehead MP Rachel Gilmour is pushing for a new tidal lagoon to be built in the Bristol Channel, running from Minehead to Watchet, to produce clean power. If the project is pursued, it could be up and running by 2038 - bringing new jobs and financial benefits to the local area.
Mrs Gilmour extolled the virtues of the West Somerset tidal lagoon during an Q&A event held at the East Quay venue on January 17, organised by the Watchet Coastal Community Team. Mrs Gilmour said she had been working with Chris Binnie, the engineer heading up the project, since February 2024, and she would shortly be meeting with the relevant ministers to discuss it further.
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She said: "The tidal lagoon would go from the other side of Minehead head - and the Luttrell Estate has agreed to let us have the land - over to the other side to Watchet. The project team were in the middle of buying about 35 acres towards Doniford to put in the batteries, so they're not relying on the National Grid to have the capacity to keep the batteries.
"This tidal lagoon, if it happens, will take ten years and it's going to cost £10bn - but given that Hinkley Point C has cost £30bn and they still haven't turned it on, the cost doesn't seem to be a major factor. If this comes off, it will provide two-thirds of the electricity that Hinkley Point C would provide, and it will last for twice as long as Hinkley Point C - so it will last 120 years rather than 60 years.
"It will produce local jobs to build the thing in the first place, and it will mean electricity, which I'm negotiating with them to offer at cheaper rates to local people."
The tidal lagoon would comprise more than 200 concrete caissons in the Bristol Channel, arranged in a semicircle between Minehead and Watchet.
Up to 125 turbines would be installed, which would generate electricity from the tidal movements of the River Severn and send the power to batteries at the Doniford site, or a direct connection to the National Grid at Shurton. There would be locks within the lagoon structure at Minehead and Watchet, allowing the towns' harbours to continue both commercial and leisure operations.
In addition to power generation, the West Somerset Lagoon website pledges to deliver "a new promenade" in Minehead, along with an arts centre, a visitor centre and a new ferry terminal to make it easier to visit the town. Much of the west Somerset economy relies on tourism - with Watchet especially suffering in the last two years following the closure of the B3191 Cleeve Hill, which links the town to Blue Anchor.
Mrs Gilmour said that the tidal lagoon would bring more investment to the local area, creating high-paid jobs - and that the construction scheme could include money for local infrastructure projects, secured through the community infrastructure levy (CIL).
She said: "The really, really sexy thing about this project is the 300-boat marina in Minehead Harbour. Yachts equals money, which equals people spending lots of money, which equals economic development, which equals jobs. So instead of going to work for £8.25 an hour at Butlin's, you can go and train as a sommelier so you can work in some 'mutts' nuts' restaurant where people are going to be spending £400 on a bottle of wine.
"That's the sort of difference I can see happening. They're also going to have a watersports facility there for young people The project team will be doing fantastic environmental things for the wildlife, including islands for birds and things like that, attracting a different sort of tourism - environmental tourism.
"When I was driving through Doniford with Chris Binnie, on the first day I met him in February, I said: 'Well, you're obviously going to have to pay some CIL money, which is the community infrastructure levy which all developers have to do.' And he said: "Oh, I know - what do you think I should spend it on?'. And guess what I said - the road to Blue Anchor."
A WSP report commissioned by Somerset County Council in 2020 proposed building a tidal lagoon from Watchet to Blue Anchor with the redirected B3191 running on top of it - with the cost being estimated at more than £1bn. Mrs Gilmour clarified that the West Somerset Lagoon project would not deliver the road redirection as part of the main construction, but that people would be able to walk around its perimeter.
She said: "They're going to put a walkway around it - you'll be able to walk around the lagoon. They're going to have gateways in and out for the fishing boats, lifeboats and things like that.
"I'm hoping we can get a public consultation next year. There are always going to be naysayers because people don't like change, but in my mind, this is exactly what this area needs."
The principle of a tidal lagoon near Minehead has attracted support from other Liberal Democrat MPs, who discussed the prospect during a parliamentary debate on January 16. Brian Mathew (the MP for Melksham and Devizes, in Wiltshire) said: "Back in 2009, I was involved in an as-yet-conceptual tidal project known as The Reef.
"It was projected to stretch from Aberthaw in south Wales to Minehead in Somerset, a distance of some 17 kilometres. The tidal difference in the Bristol Channel is the second largest in the world.
"The idea of a tidal barrage in the Bristol Channel is not new, and the location of The Reef on the Aberthaw to Minehead line was first suggested in the 1930s. The Aberthaw to Minehead line has the added advantage that it has no mud - unlike Weston-super-Mare, as anyone who has visited Weston in the summer will know."
Gideon Amos MP (Taunton and Wellington) added: "I thank my honourable friend for making an excellent point about the centrality of Somerset - in particular, the Minehead route just north of Taunton - to renewable energy. That would bring investment to regions across the UK and not just benefit the south-west and Somerset."
For more details on the West Somerset Lagoon project, visit www.westsomersetlagoon.com.