Dr Andrew Manley worked for 30 years with Shell in a variety of commercial and general management roles in the UK and globally. He also led some of Shell's biggest corporate restructuring projects and was Director of their commercial skill pool. In 2009, Andrew Joined the Ministry of Defence before joining the Tidal Lagoon Power in March 2015 to lead the company's international development.
Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay establishes a scalable blueprint for their programme. Beyond this, they aim to develop, construct and operate a fleet of tidal lagoons to meet up to 8% of UK electricity demand.
Global energy focus is turning more and more towards renewable energy. With legally binding agreements requiring a drastic increase in the percentage of national energy supply created with renewable sources, tidal energy holds an important advantage – predictability.
The UK is fortunate, having the greatest potential for this energy in the world, which if exploited, would be able to provide approximately 20% of the national energy demand. The most discussed tidal energy site has been the Severn estuary barrage, with repeated proposals outlined and rejected throughout the last 100 years.
The reasons for this refusal were due to both high costs and environmental concerns. However, a new proposal for a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay has been able to circumnavigate both of these downfalls by reducing both the investment needed and effects to the surrounding environment. Subject to a tidal range of 10.5 m and situated next to a largely populated city with excellent grid connections, Swansea Bay is a perfect location. This lagoon project has a rated output of 320 MW using bulb turbines, able to power 155,000 homes.
It is only four years since Professor George Aggidis was invited to become involved during the initial stages of this new project at its early modelling stages and turbine technology selection.