The Severn Barrage – we can do less environmentally harmful things first

Would the Severn Barrage end up as an environmental blessing or a curse? There is, of course, no free lunch in the world of environmental energy – there is no possibility of something for nothing so we have to approach decisions about things like building huge tidal barrages from the viewpoint of what will cause the least harm.  The theoretical possibility for a barrage across the Severn estuary has been studied for well over a hundred years. Today with ever increasing fossil fuel prices and shortages becoming a real possibility in the future a means of generating electricity by exploiting the large tidal surges is coming less of a theoretical possibility and more of a reality.