I first learned about tidal power, when I worked for a few months at Frederick Snow and Partners and one of their engineers briefed me about their plans for the Severn Barrage.
That was in about 1973 and it should be remembered, that I didn’t see my first large wind turbine until the last few years of the last century at Swaffham in Norfolk.
I suspect that an engineer revisiting the Severn Barrage would design it differently now.
The Wash Tidal Barrier Corporation
This company is proposing the Wash Barrier, which has a web site.
The name suggests they will generate tidal power.
The home page has a picture of wind turbines, which could be lined up on the barrier.
It also has this introduction to the project.
Sea level rise and climate change are major threats to the Wash coast and fenland environment. Sea level is predicted to rise by at least one metre by 2100 and sea temperatures, already 1°C higher, are increasing by 0.4°C each decade. Storm surges sufficient to overwhelm the Wash coastal defences are becoming ever more likely.
Raising the height of existing coastal defences would not only be prohibitively expensive, but also have a major impact on marginal habitats such as salt marsh, inter-tidal mudflats and sandbanks.
A tidal barrier across the Wash will provide us with the opportunity to manage the tide height and range within the Wash. The Barrier also offers a number of additional benefits – in particular, the generation of a large and reliable amount of green electricity and flood protection for more than 500,000 people, 300,000 hectares of grade 1 agricultural land and billions of pounds’ worth of assets.
The Wash Tidal Barrier Corporation plc is a private company, founded by Cambridgeshire-based entrepreneur Peter Dawe specifically to promote and build a barrier.
The proposed barrier will span the Wash from Hunstanton in Norfolk to just south of Skegness in Lincolnshire, a distance of approximately 18km, with an additional 5km of barrier in Lincolnshire in order to reach high ground.
Following are many of the design considerations we need to assess.
If you click on the Next button, you are led though a few pages that describe the barrier and the issues it raises.
I feel it is a comprehensive outline of what could be done.
It’s also quite old, as it suggests completion in 2012.
This are my thoughts.
Transport Across The Barrier
Some of the world’d barrages across rivers and estuaries have either road or rail links on the top.
Frederick Snow’s original plans for the Severn would have carried a Second Severn Crossing.
In Thoughts On Belgium’s Coastal Tram, I said this.
Along The North Norfolk Coast
This is a route, that could be developed, to ease the traffic problems in the area.
It could connect Kings Lynn and Sheringham stations.
And why shouldn’t it be extended to Skegness?
If the Dutch can put a road across the IJsselmeer, why can’t we put a road across the Wash.
Flood Protection
One of the things I remember from my chat at Frederick Snow and Partners fifty years ago was someone saying, that if you build a barrage, then make sure it sorts out any flooding.
The Wash Barrier web site, says this about flood protection.
The Barrier will provide flood protection for more than 500,000 people, 300,000 hectares of grade 1 agricultural land and billions of pounds’ worth of assets. While building higher significantly adds to the cost, the probability of the Barrier being overwhelmed is greatly reduced.
The promoter of this project would be in deep trouble, if after completion, it didn’t solve the flooding problems, as they said it would.
This article from the Eastern Daily Press, is entitled Norfolk’s Darkest Night: Remembering The 1953 Floods.
No-one wants something like that to happen again.
Electricity Generation
As I said earlier there are possibilities for both wind and tidal power in the project.
As an experienced mathematical modeller, I would be surprised if the power generation and costs of a project like this couldn’t be predicted to a reasonable degree of accuracy by an expert.
Planning Permission
Given the problems that have been associated with building electricity substations and their power cables in Norfolk recently, I would be surprised if planning permission for a Wash Barrage was a piece of cake.
It Could Be One For The Accountants
Once a project like this has been defined, I believe it should be possible to go through the standard financial procedures to see if it was worthwhile to proceed.
I
March 5, 2023
Posted by AnonW |
Energy, Finance | Floods, Frederick Snow, North Sea Flood Of 1953, Severn Barrage, Swaffham, The Wash, Tidal Power, Wash Barrier, Wind Power |
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The title of this post, is the same as that, of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Belgian offshore construction companies Jan De Nul and DEME, through their consortium TM EDISON, have won the tender for the construction of the Princess Elisabeth Island in their home country and the first artificial energy island in the world.
And this first paragraph outlines the project.
The artificial island, which will be built some 45 kilometres off the Belgian coast and will occupy an area of approximately five hectares above the waterline, will serve as the link between the offshore wind farms in the country’s second, 3.5 GW Princess Elisabeth offshore wind zone and its onshore high-voltage grid.
Initial plans don’t seem to be putting any wind turbines or solar panels on the island.
The most impressive part of the article is the video, which shows how the island will be constructed.
To some people of my age, the construction of the island will seem familiar, as the island will be built in a similar way to the Mulberry harbours of World War II.
A few years ago, I went inside some of the giant Pheonix caissons in The Netherlands, where they were initially used to plug the dykes after the North Sea Flood of 1953. They are now a museum of the floods called the Watersnoodmuseum.
Engineering is repeating itself.
March 2, 2023
Posted by AnonW |
Design, Energy | Belgium, Construction, DEME, Energy Island, Engineering, Mulberry Harbour, North Sea Flood Of 1953, Princess Elisabeth Energy Island, Second World War, The Netherlands, Watersnoodmuseum |
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This press release from the Met Office is entitled Storm Franklin Named.
When I first heard yesterday, that the storm was to be named, I must admit, that I allowed myself a small smile.
I went to Minchenden Grammar School in Southgate, leaving in 1965.
One teacher, that we looked upon with a degree of affection was our German teacher, who was Frank J Stabler, who some pupils referred to as Franklin J Stabler. I don’t know whether that was his real name or whether it was fellow pupils making it up.
But he did have one story, that he used to liven up one of the lessons, where he taught me enough German to get by in the country.
Apparently, he was returning from France to the UK on the night of Saturday, the 31st of January in 1953, using the ferry from Dieppe in France to Newhaven in Sussex.
That ferry route used to have a reputation for being rough and on one bad crossing around 1975, my five-year-old son fell and cut himself just above his eye. He was skillfully cleaned up and plastered by one of the chefs. Luckily the chef had been a soldier, who had been well-trained in first aid.
Back in 1953, Mr. Stabler could have chosen a better night for his trip, as that day was the night of devastating East Coast Floods, which killed over five hundred people in the UK.
The captain of the ferry decided to sit the storm out and crew and passengers spent twenty-four hours being tossed about like a cork in the English Channel, which was a tale Mr. Stabler told with great drama.
He finished the tale, by saying that in the end, he prayed for the boat to go down to put everybody out of their misery.
Conclusion
I have to ask if someone on the committee that decides storm names, either directly or indirectly, has heard this tale and decided that Franklin would be an appropriate name for a storm beginning with F.
February 21, 2022
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel, World | Ferry, France, Germany, Minchenden, North Sea Flood Of 1953, Storm Franklin, Teaching, Weather |
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The Ordnance Hotel in Felixstowe is long gone and has now been replaced by a Premier Inn.
The Ordnance Hotel played a large part in my life, in that according to my father, I was conceived there.
It was rather strange to walk out of the front of the hotel and imagine in my mind, the view from perhaps in 1958, when we stayed as a family in the hotel.
In those days, you could still see the tide mark on the walls of the nearby houses, which was caused by the North Sea Flood of 1953.
March 4, 2019
Posted by AnonW |
World | Felixstowe, Floods, Hotel, My Father, North Sea Flood Of 1953, Roaming Around East Anglia- March 2019 |
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The Anonymous Widower 