Tidal Lagoon Power (TLP) is eyeing a 60-year Contract for Difference (CfD) for its 320MW Swansea Bay project worth £92.50 per megawatt-hour, chief executive Mark Shorrock told Parliament.
Addressing a joint inquiry by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Welsh Affairs select committees, Shorrock said TLP is working with the Welsh government on a new financial structure for the project.
TLP proposes the Welsh government should be the “long term” owner of the lagoon, which would be backed by “descending” price support via a bilateral CfD that pays less subsidy over time.
Shorrock said the £92.50/MWh figure included an “extremely substantial” equity investment offer by Cardiff into the pilot scheme, said to be in the region of £200m.
The lagoon would need price support equivalent to £150/MWh over 35 years without Welsh investment, he added.
In addition to price support, TLP has yet to secure a marine licence from Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and seabed licence from The Crown Estate.
Shorrock said the impacts on fish from the Swansea Bay project would be “negligible”.
“The experts used by NRW and Defra and our own experts have reached a point in the modeling where 85% of all parameters are agreed and the impacts are coming out extraordinarily low: negligible impacts on fish,” he added.
Image: Mark Shorrock (HMG)
Swansea lagoon reveals CfD asks
By EBS