MPs have urged BEIS Secretary Greg Clark to open price support negotiations for Tidal Lagoon Power’s 320MW Swansea Bay project.
107 MPs have signed a letter to Clark following the publication last month of the Hendry Review commissioned last year by the then DECC.
The review recommended the government started immediate Contract for Difference negotiations.
Hendry’s report also proposed the construction of a ‘pathfinder’ lagoon at Swansea Bay to start as soon as negotiations with the companies involved have been finalised.
Chair of the all-party parliamentary group for marine energy and tidal lagoons Richard Graham urged Clark not to delay in responding to the recommendations and getting financial talks for Swansea Bay underway.
“There is a large amount of support in parliament for this and many of us believe that tidal lagoons meet the aims of the government’s new industrial strategy,” he added.
“Hendry was very clear in urging the government to give the green light for a pathfinder in Swansea and then see whether the experience justified going ahead with much larger future lagoons.”
In a related development, Plaid Cymru has called for Welsh ministers to consider taking an equity stake in the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon.
The party’s natural resources spokesman Simon Thomas said Wales should consider a similar level of investment to the £52m spent by Welsh ministers in acquiring Cardiff Airport in 2013.
Image: Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay (Tidal Lagoon Power)
