November Science Cafe -The Severn Barrage: Europe's Largest Proposed Marine Renewable Energy Project

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The Swansea Science Cafe offers opportunities for anyone to find out more about new, exciting and topical areas of science in an informal and entertaining way.

 Title: The Severn Barrage: Europe's Largest Proposed Marine Renewable Energy Project

Speaker: Professor Roger Falconer of Cardiff University

Date: Wednesday 27th November

Time:  7:30pm

Venue: The Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea

Admission: Free, all welcome

Summary:In this talk, Professor Falconer will discuss the Severn Barrage which, if it is built, would be a truly huge engineering feat and amongst the world's biggest construction projects.

Professor Falconer will summarise the work that the Hydro-Environmental Research Centre at Cardiff University has performed on modelling the barrage. The predictions of the simulations of the barrage in different configurations will be shown including the "two-way" and "ebb tide only" setups. The results will show that the two-way power generation is favourable in that it minimises several of the hydro-environmental concerns and offers better flood protection while offering almost the same power as the ebb tide configuration.

Contact details: http://swansea.ac.uk/science/swanseasciencecafe/

About Science Cafe Wales

Each month, a leading expert in their field will give a brief introductory talk followed by a friendly informal chat. You can sit back, relax with a drink and listen or get involved in the discussion and debate. The Science Café organisers are committed to promoting public engagement with science and to making science accountable.

Science Café Wales are held in casual settings in Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor. They are informal and accessible and entrance is entirely free. They usually start with a short talk from the speaker, usually a scientist or writer, followed by a quick break and then an hour or so of discussion afterwards.

Previous topics have included dark matter, the common cold, Dr Who, the Big Bang and alternative therapies.

The first Cafes Scientifiques in the UK were held in Leeds in 1998. From there cafés gradually spread across the country.

Currently, some 40 or so cafés meet regularly to hear scientists or writers on science talk about their work and discuss it with diverse audiences.