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Renewable Energy: Pembrokeshire

Volume 494: debated on Thursday 25 June 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of (a) the capacity of and (b) constraints on the development of potential wave power and tidal power projects off the Pembrokeshire coast. (279455)

The Government have recently announced that work was commencing towards a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for English and Welsh waters, which will include the Pembrokeshire coast.

As a first step, we are conducting a screening exercise to understand better the energy generation potential of marine energy devices and the realistic time scales of when multiple devices will be installed and commissioned. The screening exercise will inform planning for the various studies and other activities needed to put in place a strategic environmental assessment for marine energy devices. It will cover wave, tidal stream and tidal range (outside of the Severn estuary) and aims to map environmental sensitivities and constraints and to identify possible strategic level data and information gaps.

The screening exercise will build upon the data already gathered for the Offshore Energy SEA, the Severn Tidal SEA, the Welsh Marine Energy Strategic Plan, the UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources Atlas and other studies.