Tides ‘are way to go for power in future’

Friday 18th July 2003, 12:00AM BST.

JERSEY should make use of tidal power to generate ‘clean’ electricity, says environment director Chris Newton.

Mr Newton said that whereas he supported the use of wind power in principle, the Island could also take advantage of its huge tidal flows to generate power.If wind masts were to be installed, he said, they should only be placed where they could be guaranteed not to have an impact on the local environment.But the idea of tidal or wave-generated power has been described as ‘a non-starter’ by Jersey Electricity managing director Mike Liston.

He said that if tidal schemes were economically viable, other places in the world would already be trying them out.

Wave power, he added, had more potential, but 70 per cent of investment in renewable energy worldwide was going to wind farms because that was felt to be the most economic option.

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