WHICH ever way you look at it the proposed new Hinkley C nuclear power station is an expensive nightmare, on a par with High Speed Rail. The price began around £14 billion and then has consistently risen, first to £16 billion, then £18 billion, and more recently over £24 billion with a figure for lifetime expenditure of close on £37 billion.

There have been even higher prices suggested, and all to provide just seven percent of our electricity. It would be far cheaper to give each household twenty LED light bulbs, and to re-establish subsidies for solar and wind generation, rather than restricting financial support to new gas fired power stations.

All this just at the time when France, and particularly China, the two countries that will build it and profit from it, are developing renewable energy on a grand scale. France will have cut its nuclear capacity in half by 2026, when Hinkley is supposed to open though it will be years later if the delays with the same model elsewhere are an indication.

It would be much simpler if we began building five tidal lagoon schemes, producing more than ten percent of the countries electricity in total, with all of them up and running before Hinkley approaches completion, and there would be no need for the problems, and costs, associated with the disposal of spent nuclear fuel.

There's an inevitability about the tides as there will be two a day whatever we do, and it would be possible to increase power production by having the surrounding barrage walls, up to six miles long in the case of the Swansea Bay proposal, lined with wind turbines. Tidal schemes are unique in the renewable energy family as they are not irregularly intermittent, even though tides can vary a little in height at certain times of the year.

It would be possible to start with the Swansea barrage and then move on to sites in West Wales, Morecambe Bay, the Dee estuary and the Solway Bay area. There are many advantages in terms of employment, using local stone and aggregate, and the reliance on UK companies for construction and engineering will be attractive economically.

Another advantage is that denser water can turn turbines at much lower speeds, around one metre per second, compared with air needing to move six times faster for wind turbines. While these slower turbine speeds also mean a reduced threat to marine life forms, the sheltered lagoons and barrages will provide a real opportunity for recreational activity and a boost for nearby rural areas.

The UK has 8,000 miles of coastline; it needs using and all for a cost less than Hinckley C.