Tidal lagoon challenge

The Tidal Lagoon Challenge made available a grant fund of £750,000 to projects which can demonstrate they had the potential to either;

• Reduce or remove a barrier that is currently preventing tidal lagoons being developed.
  
  For example reducing environmental uncertainty by addressing evidence gaps relating to receptors that are most likely to be affected by tidal lagoon development.
   
• Help to quantify a potential benefit of tidal lagoon development.
  
  For example valuing the energy system benefit of predictable tidal lagoon energy.

The Tidal Lagoon Challenge opened in June 2023, and the successful applicants were announced in March 2024. The winning bids were:

• In the Environment category: Swansea University, in partnership with Fish Guidance Systems Ltd, Natural England, Batri Ltd & DST Innovations Ltd with the Enabling tidal lagoon consents: providing fish migration data, and developing and validating an acoustic fish deterrence system for twaite shad project. The project will use fish tagging and monitoring to test the effectiveness of acoustic fish deterrence (AFD) as a mitigation measure for tidal range deployment.
   
• In the Engineering and Technical category: Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, in partnership with Cardiff University, Intertek and Western Gateway, with the FLOMax Flexible Lagoon Operation for Maximal Value project. The project will use modelling to quantify the value of developing tidal range power.
   
• In the Socio-economic and Finance category: Cardiff University, in partnership with Western Gateway and British Hydropower Association Ltd with the Tidal Lagoon Schemes: Ownership, Equity and Finance project. The project will consider how different ownership and development/financing models for tidal lagoons could have positive impacts on the Welsh economy.

If you are interested in the research being undertaken please get in touch with the team at TidalLagoonChallenge@gov.wales