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Tidal range energy could be the key to solving the UK’s energy crisis, according to a startup founder who believes that the UK has some of the best potential for harnessing the source. Over the past year, the UK has accelerated its rollout of renewable energy like solar and wind, in a bid to end the country’s reliance on volatile gas markets that sending household bills to eye-watering levels. This investment has already begun to pay, with the UK so far generating electricity more from renewables than it did from gas between October 1 and January 13.
Stuart Murphy, founder of tidal range energy system TPGen24, noted that his sites will be able to generate energy from both the rising and receding tide, and also during its highest and lowest points, thus being able to provide electricity throughout the day.
He said that by harnessing tidal range energy, the UK could slash its energy bills, boost independence, and prevent blackouts that could arise if wind and solar energy generation is low.
He told Express.co.uk: “When you got to the Middle East and you see petrol is 20p a litre, the reason why it’s so cheap si that they dig it out of their own yard. They’ve got the oil.
“Well, we’ve got the same on our shores. We got the coastal ranges, and the tidal ranges. We start using them, we start reducing our energy bills significantly, and we won’t be reliant on Russian gas or French or Norwegian electricity.”
Europe’s energy security has been left battered following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with countries scrambling to secure energy supplies after Russian gas flows were cut.
Fearing that the UK may not be able to import sufficient electricity from France or Norway this winter, the National Grid has laid in place plans to impose three-hour blackouts in case energy supplies become scarce.
Despite the UK’s massive scale-up in renewables, critics have warned that both wind and solar energy are intermittent, meaning during days when the wind isn’t blowing and the Sun isn’t shining, power output could drop drastically, even sparking blackouts.
According to Mr Murphy, tidal range energy can solve this issue, as the sites his company has planned as designed to generate large amounts of electricity for 24 hours a day, providing a constant baseload source of power.
He noted that wind and solar alone cannot serve as the UK’s baseload power, which is the minimum amount of electric power needed to be supplied to the Grid at any given time.
He said: “There’s a lot going on at the moment, and we believe we have the best solution in the world for renewable energy. Only tidal range provides base load, and can produce power from a single site 24/7. TPGen24 is the only real solution.”
He added that to build his plants, the company will “billions of pounds to set this up”, however, he added that this sum would be “nowhere near the billions of pounds for the cost of setting up a nuclear power station.”
Nuclear has been criticised for its high cost and frequent delays. With EDF’s Hinkley Point C currently being pushed back a year to 2027, while cost approximately £25billion. Mr Murphy noted that his sites will “have three or four times the output as a nuclear power station and we can do it in a much shorter period of time.”
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He continued: “No other source can mimic gas and coal either, they can switch on and off, in order to meet demand between intermittent renewables. Tidal range is the only power source that can compete with gas and coal.”
TPGen24 noted that the Severn Estuary region, the North Wales Coast stretching up to Barrow-in-Furness, and some of the coastal waters off Jersey were viable sites to harness tidal range energy.
Mr Murphy noted that communities living in these areas would likely see a major economic boost once the sites are built, adding “house prices in these coastal areas will skyrocket once permissions are granted”.
He previously said: “A single plant alone can generate enough electricity to power 800,000 homes or recharge up to 10 million electric cars a year, just through utilising the power of the world’s tidal ranges.”
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