A Welsh Affairs Committee report on the potential for renewable energy in Wales has overlooked the hydropower and tidal energy sectors, the British Hydropower Association has claimed.
The Association says that despite it giving detailed evidence to the committee on the role of hydropower and tidal range schemes, both technologies are omitted from the report.
“This is an important report on green technology in Wales which has been whitewashed at the very time the world is focused on climate change and how to solve the climate emergency,” said Simon Hamlyn, chief executive of the British Hydropower Association, in a report published in the The National. “It is a staggering omission that not once does the Welsh Affairs Committee report mention the word hydropower despite a lengthy written submission and oral evidence to MPs. Not once do they mention tidal range.”
“It’s extremely disappointing that the Welsh Affairs Committee has totally ignored a key renewable technology that could contribute so much to future generations,” added Henry Dixon, chair of the British Hydropower Association’s Tidal Range Alliance. “In our submission to the committee, we not only outlined how tidal range schemes could feed into Wales’ low carbon future but the wide ranging and essential benefits they would bring to coastal communities who are facing real challenges from rising sea levels.”
This is not the first time the Welsh Government has been criticised for its treatment of the hydropower sector. Earlier this year small hydro operators accused the government of abandoning the sector and its own climate change commitments after ministers scrapped a vital grant at the end of last year, and they were criticised for failing to listen to businesses across rural Wales affected by punitive business rates.
