The Anonymous Widower

Thoughts On The Wash Barrier

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.

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March 5, 2023 Posted by | Energy, Finance | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment