Having just spent a few days watching Tidal Waves on the River Great Ouse, I was thinking that this blog should be focused on the power of mother nature and the abundance of energy it brings through natural cycles. And yes, that includes the moon!
The ‘Wiggenhall Wave’ was first recorded in parish records from 1588, the year Elizabeth 1 came to the throne. Every 12 hrs and 24 minutes (ish) the tide turns on the River and when conditions are just right a great force of water surges along the shallow, narrowing channel of the Great Ouse. As the incoming tide meets resistance from the outgoing tide, the riverbed and banks, it slows, rises up and crashes with waves high and fast enough to surf or bodyboard. For 500 yrs, Fen Folk have been watching the Eagre in all its fine glory and have had their landscape, culture and heritage shaped by it.
The power of the incoming tide, the most predictable and constant energy source on the planet is being wasted. As an Island nation with 18 or the world’s 52 known Tidal Bores it’s madness for them to be left untapped. The fantasy Wash Barrage that’s being discussed in West and North Norfolk is not the way to harness the tide. Working with nature, or ‘going with the flow’ is where the win is. Not building a barrage across the sea and displacing the incoming tides to erode the North Norfolk and East Lincolnshire coastlines whilst irreversibly altering the The Wash and inland marshes as we know them. A flotilla of small boats, anchored for the course of the Tidal river, with wheels turning on the tide have the potential to boil every kettle in West Norfolk simultaneously!
Hydro and other renewable projects can be expensive but regardless of scale, once in situ, will last for decades. Solar panels alone which are now 100% recyclable will last 30 – 35 yrs without significant drop in output, lithium batteries 20 yrs or more when balanced and managed and hydro dams can last 100 yrs or more! We’ve all seen wind turbines 10-15 yrs old, who knows how long they’ll last?
Some Countries have grasped the short term financial hit of ‘going green’ for the greater good of their populus for generations to come and now run their entire nation on renewables. We all know that renewables are not only the quickest energy sources to deploy, they are also most scalable. If Iceland, Norway, Costa Rica and Uruguay can do this, (almost or on target) then there is no reason we in the UK can’t tap into what is rightfully ours. It’s time to take back control of our energy. Yes we have decarbonised a great deal and we’re told our emissions are shrinking more than most developed nations but it’s not enough and not totally true. In the last 20 yrs or so, we have outsourced our manufacturing industries to the far east, which is convenient so we have someone to blame for global emissions. We may well have just under 1% of global emissions, but the products we buy are carbon counted in the country of manufacture.
Meanwhile, UK Gov PLC encourages the populus to burn more oil for a few more years, encouraging drivers to not slow down through towns, cities and villages and creating a false narrative that renewables will break the bank. It’s ridiculous to think that as the world races towards a brighter, cleaner future, the UK has put the brakes on and slowed the progress the nation had been making. At the very time we should be creating those highly paid jobs in renewables, cleaning up the streets and air we breathe, Mr Sunak has opted for the vote grabbing headlines that spin the truth and tell you that their fiction are facts when the reverse is true.
Now I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who longs to live a life where everything is within a 15 minute radius. Where car drivers are slower, more considerate and emission free. A life where we buy locally produced foodstuff and goods. Cars, houses and businesses that are powered by the natural resources we have in abundance right on our doorstep. Or rooftops to be precise!
The answers really are blowing in the wind, flowing with the tides and rising with the Sun. We have the solutions, we just lack the will and leadership to harness what Mother Nature provides.