CHEC to provide marine works for tidal lagoon power station project

China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) has been selected as the preferred bidder to provide marine works for the £1 billion Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project in UK.

The contract is valued at £300 million (US$460 million). The contract includes the development of the six mile lagoon wall in Swansea Bay.

CHEC has committed to approximately 50% UK content for the delivery of the package. The firm has also established a UK subsidiary company and has set out its vision to pursue a UK infrastructure investment programme over the next decade.

Further to the work programme on the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, CHEC will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd, the project’s developers, for the development of tidal lagoons in Asia, potentially opening a major new export channel for British expertise and technology.

Mr LIN Yi Chong, President & CEO at China Harbour Engineering Company, said:

“CHEC has taken the strategic decision to enter the UK infrastructure investment and construction market, and we see the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, a pioneering scheme that could bring the world a new energy option, as the cornerstone project in our business development strategy in the UK and wider Europe. We have not invested directly into the Swansea Bay project but we made a proposal to do so and will seek opportunities to invest in similar projects in the UK and Europe. We will seek to grow our UK presence through significant investment into a subsidiary business and through a programme of UK infrastructure investment and construction.”

The project will generate 500 GWh of electricity every year for 120 years, enough to provide nearly all of the domestic electricity for the Swansea Bay region, comprising the city and county of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot. It will help the UK meet its carbon reduction targets by saving more than 236,000 tonnes of CO2 each year; and establishes a scalable blueprint for a total of six UK lagoons that could between them provide 8% of the UK’s electricity, also for 120 years.