Queen’s Speech

Earl of Liverpool Excerpts

Monday 16th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Liverpool (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Shinkwin, who has just delivered a thought-provoking speech. Like other noble Lords who have spoken today, I want to say how delighted I was to see that the energy security Bill has been given high priority in the gracious Speech. My noble friend Lord Moynihan—who I do not think is in his place—referred to it as a Christmas tree Bill. Be that as it may, I hope it will give us the opportunity to examine all the non-fossil-fuel energy-creating possibilities available to us today.

I will concentrate my remarks this evening on just two green energy opportunities: tidal lagoons—mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, among others—and hydrogen. I have no interests to declare, other than a wish to see our blue planet saved for as many generations as possible.

We are blessed with having the second-largest tidal range in the world, measuring some 26 feet, or 8 metres. Unlike solar and wind, the tide tables are utterly predictable, which means that with intelligent use of sluice gates and low-head dual-flow turbines, lagoons could generate power for around 15 hours guaranteed in every 24-hour cycle. Most importantly, some of that power could be held back and released into the grid at times when it is most needed.

This technology has been known about for years. Although a number of promising sites have been identified—Swansea and Cardiff Bay among them—not a single one has so far been built. Financing these projects has, I believe, been a stumbling block because they do not fit neatly into the CfD funding formula favoured by Governments, but perhaps it will now be possible to tap into the £22 billion fund available within the UK Infrastructure Bank Bill, which is due for its Second Reading in a week’s time.

The added benefits of building tidal lagoons would include mitigating coastal erosion and the provision of leisure facilities, including marinas, general water sports activities and tourism. There are thought to be about 10 suitable sites around our shores, and collectively they could supply 10% of our energy needs. I was intrigued to discover among them the exciting prospect of the Mersey tidal power project, also known as the Liverpool Bay scheme—so I had to mention that. It seems to have great potential and has the strong support of the Liverpool Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram, and the Liverpool City Region.

In 2016, Charles Hendry, who had been Minister for Energy and Climate Change, was given the task of conducting a report on the potential of tidal lagoons. In 2017, the Hendry review was published, as the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, mentioned. His conclusions were very favourable. To quote just one paragraph, he said:

“Most importantly, it is clear that tidal lagoons at scale could deliver low carbon power in a way that is very competitive with other low carbon sources.”


He proposed that a pathfinder project should be commissioned as soon as possible to establish at first hand the practicalities of building lagoons and the potential energy derived therefrom, and that this could be used to inform later large-scale schemes.

Another of his proposals was to set up a new body to be called the tidal power authority, established at arm’s length from the Government with the goal of maximising UK advantage from tidal lagoons. Both ideas seem eminently sensible to me, but unfortunately—perhaps overtaken by political events at the time—the report did not get the support it needed and fell by the wayside. If the Minister has not already done so, could he please get hold of a copy of this report, blow the dust off it and see how relevant its findings could be today, especially bearing in mind the huge energy price increases we are seeing and the urgent need to be as energy self-sufficient as possible?

I am afraid I have run out of time, so I will have to save my comments on hydrogen for another occasion.