Tidal electricity generation is among the ideas listed by Boris Johnson as a way of avoiding reliance on Putin’s Russia. It is an even stronger candidate than he might have realised, holding out the promise not only of increasing our energy independence but also levelling up. A group of scientists and engineers has shown how we could generate electricity using tidal energy that does not require the building of a costly lagoon, like the cancelled scheme for Swansea Bay.

Schemes based on using tidal river basins would increase energy security, reduce reliance on authoritarian dictatorships, increase “levelling up”, and (unlike other renewables) require no government subsidy. Moreover, unlike wind and solar, there is no intermittency problem and electricity is generated round the clock every day of the year.

A considerable amount of electricity could be generated on derelict, brownfield sites that lie adjacent to the major industrial rivers in the UK. They are former shipyards, chemical works, salt pans, wharves and ironworks that have been abandoned.

In essence the plan involves taking over a derelict riverside site, near the sea (to use the full tidal range) but far enough inland to avoid sea storms. A simple concrete and steel construction, like a dry dock, is all that’s required. Turbines work between the river and the excavated basin, which is subdivided into chambers with turbines in the dividing walls. When the tide comes in, through the turbines, it makes electricity and when it goes out, it also passes through turbines to make electricity. Some water is held back in the chambers to keep generating while the tide is turning.

Housing could be built on the roof of the basin and sold to help recover capital costs. The sites could also be used as a base for frozen food factories. The frozen food industry is a very heavy user of electricity but siting a large operating plant over a tidal basin would enable the turnover of cold tidal water to act as the cooling reservoir and take a considerable load off the grid.

An even heavier user of electricity is the data storage industry. The amount of power used to cool enormous memory banks is huge. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook, as well as the NHS, are all concerned about the cost of keeping vast computer facilities cool. This burden could be taken off the grid by transferring it to the cold water circulating in the tidal basin. Green hydrogen could also be manufactured by electrolysis using on-site electricity when not required by the national grid.

About 40 potential sites have been identified. The most promising are on the Tyne (former dry docks), at the Forth (former salt pans), the Tees (former ICI works), the Orwell (another former ICI site), and Swansea (a former BP chemical works and a former steelworks). Each would be capable of generating around 400MW.

The opportunity for inward investment is huge and no government subsidy is required, unlike schemes for large-scale nuclear plants. Reliable income streams would come from selling the electricity, using the water for cooling, and selling green hydrogen.

If we want both energy independence and levelling-up, then generating electricity in tidal river basins looks like the next big idea.