THIS month a formal application has been made to construct a tidal lagoon at Swansea just across the Bristol Channel from North Devon.
Details are on the official Planning Inspectorate website at http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/projects/ wales/tidal-lagoon-swansea-bay/?ipcsection=overview.
This £850 million project is designed to capture energy from the rise and fall of the tides in the channel, providing about a quarter of the capacity of the withdrawn Atlantic Array, but with a vastly improved reliability and few of the disadvantages of a wind-farm or the ecologically suspect proposals for a Severn Barrage.
Essentially it is a "horseshoe" breakwater enclosing part of the sea so as to create different sea levels inside and outside a lagoon.
By equalising levels through turbines electricity can be generated for up to 14 (predictable) hours per day.
The breakwater itself will provide a pedestrian walkway and tourist attraction.
Surveys in the area have recorded well over 80% support for the scheme.
Readers are urged to follow progress on this project, where formal consent should be given around mid-2015, allowing construction to start by 2016 and electricity generation in 2018.
This is a world-first for the UK.
The Swansea scheme is intended as the first of many such around Britain's coasts in areas with a high tidal range.
The Crown Estate are considering establishing a leasing process for more of these schemes – and could invite expressions of interest as soon as autumn 2014.
This presents a big opportunity for North Devon.
A prime candidate could be the area just north-east of Ilfracombe, in the spot where a campaign has sought a northern breakwater for more than 40 years.
A tidal lagoon would include such a breakwater and ensure greater protection for Ilfracombe as a port and harbour.
Clearly there are a lot of factors to be considered, and we should start considering them now.
If the North Devon community likes what is proposed for Swansea they could invite a developer to explore the possibilities for a similar scheme off the northern Devon coast – near Ilfracombe or elsewhere along our coastline.
This is a chance for North Devon to play its proper role in relation to marine energy – by harnessing the tides – and could provide some genuine local jobs rather than just whiffs of such blowing in the wind.