Severn Barrage

Our latest rest day has been in Chepstow, watching the River Wye fall and rise with the tide. Apparently this area has the second largest tide in the world. We saw the direction of the river change within five minutes and the huge power of the incoming tide.

A Severn Barrage is being proposed to generate electricity from the tidal force of the Severn and Bristol Channel. Last night one of our hosts said he recognised the need for different ways to generate electricity, but was worried about the impacts of any barrage on the local environment.

We need to generate more electricity from non-fossil fuel sources. Whether or not we need gigantic projects like the Severn Barrage, the threat of climate change means we have to massively increase the energy we generate from the sun, wind, waves and tides.

However, any way we extract energy from the Earth may potentially be damaging. We have to use less energy so that we generate less in the first place.