Study shows the energy potential of Pentland Firth

falling due, having seen the 212mph vehicle's value plummet with the

collapse of the supercar market.

The car's maker, JaguarSport -- a joint Jaguar-TWR venture -- has

already issued writs against a number of buyers for non-payment but at

least one customer is planning to challenge the order in the High Court.

Jaguar first offered the car for sale in December 1989 to buyers

willing to put down a #50,000 deposit plus VAT and to wait two years for

delivery.

At the time the market in supercars was booming and the limited

edition of 350 vehicles was more than four times over-subscribed by 1500

applicants.

However, with the onset of recession the market fell away and ''as

many as a couple of dozen'' buyers, according to Jaguar, have failed to

make the second #50,000 payment.

''We tried very hard to make sure the 350 chosen were all genuine

enthusiasts who wanted the car but unfortunately there were a number of

speculators involved who just wanted to make a quick profit,'' said

Jaguar's director of public affairs David Boole.

The case is expected to come before a Judge in the next few weeks.

POWER generated from sea currents round the coast of Britain could

open up huge sources of renewable energy supplies, according to a new

report commissioned by the Government.

Tidal stream energy could supply almost one-fifth of the UK's

electricity needs, the report suggests.

It identifies the Pentland Firth, the narrow straits between the

mainland and Orkney where tidal currents can run up to 12mph, as a major

potential energy source, as well as various sites round the Channel

Islands.

The #50,000 report, commissioned by the Department of Trade and

Industry was carried out as part of the renewable energy research and

development programme by a group of consultants led by a subsiduary of

UK civil engineering contractors Balfour Beatty.

The Pentland Firth alone has the potential to supply three times as

much electricity as is generated by hydro-electric power stations in the

Highlands, at present Britain's biggest source of renewable energy, with

1000mw of installed capacity.

Other areas with significant potential include the Bristol Channel and

parts of the North Channel between Scotland and Ireland, together with

smaller sites off Portland Bill in Dorset and others off Scotland's west

coast.

The authors of the Tidal Stream Energy Review eschew massive barrages,

and opt instead for adaptations of proven technology, mainly derived

from offshore engineering and existing wind-power expertise.

They envisage arrays of ''tide-mills'' using underwater propellers

with a diameter of 20m.

These would either be fixed to towers tied to the sea bed, dropped

from surface floats or suspended in mid-water below wave level, using a

small-scale adaptation of the technology used in ''tension leg'' oil

platforms.

The authors are cautious over costs, emphasising that these are

tentative because no tidemills yet exist, but think that some of the

best Pentland Firth sites could produce power at under 10p a kilowatt.

One of them, Mr Peter Frankel, a director of IT Power, of Eversley,

near Reading, says the experience of other renewable energy-research

suggests that costs could be substantially reduced to perhaps one-third

of these estimates once tide-mill generating sets were being

mass-produced.

This summer his private-sector 12-man company is co-operating with

Scottish Nuclear and NEL -- formerly the National Engineering Laboratory

-- of East Kilbride to install the world's first sea current power

station on an experimental basis in the Corran Narrows in Loch Linnhe,

near Fort William.

The 10kw unit is being regarded as a proof-of-concept experiment

costing just under #200,000.

Mr Frankel, 51, a University College, London, mechanical engineering

graduate, says power from sea currents has advantages over wind or wave

power ''because it is 100% predictable, thus making it far more reliable

than electricity from wind farms or wave power sites, which produce

nothing when the air or sea is calm''.

He says the tide-cycle variations between slowest and fastest currents

were significantly less than in wind-speeds for aerogenerators, which

means that tidemills operate under much more predictable and known

constraints.

He adds: ''I hope that this report represents a beginning for a new

clean energy resource, which should not have significant environmental

drawbacks, and which now has very large proven reserves.''

He said sea current power could play a significant role in reducing

the output of greenhouse gases, adding that if this summer's

demonstration went well he wanted a larger-scale trial up and running

within the next couple of years, with a start at harnessing the Pentland

Firth tide streams by the end of the century.

The new engineering study, which also involved civil engineering

consultants Binnie and Partners and builders Sir Robert McAlpine could

be the start of a posthumous dream come true for George Bernard Shaw.

During the very cold winter of 1947, when he was 91, he wrote a letter

to the Times urging UK engineers to study ways of harnessing the

Pentland Firth currents with their ''monstrous excess of power'', which

he reckoned could electrify half of Europe.

The study was carried out for the DTI as part of the Renewable Energy

Research and Development Programme, managed by the Energy Technology

Support Unit (ETSU), which is based at Harwell in Berkshire.

Any power produced from the Pentland Firth sea currents would go to

population centres via a 275kv powerline which runs south from Dounreay.

Yesterday, a Scottish Hydro official said it was technically possible

to upgrade the line to carry more power, but the report says that if the

Pentland Firth is to reach its true potential then several more

high-voltage lines would have to be built.

Seven of the 16 large sites identified in the report are in the

Pentland Firth, and six of these are among the eight UK tidal-stream

sites which the report says are most cost-efficient.