My journey to walk each day takes me past the River Wear to Durham train station. It's great to see some of the exciting developments on the riverside, in particular the installation of a new hydro-turbine within the existing weir. There is a decent height difference between the upper and lower sections of the river so utilising the power of the water that comes through seems to make complete sense.
I took a couple of photographs last week (on a typical warm, sunny day in the North East)...
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| The water drops through the levels of the weir |
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| The 13m, 20 tonne, Archimedean screw |
Some of the facts I could find from the internet are as follows...
- A 100kw generator that will supply 75% of the energy to the new Freeman's Reach development
- Designed and manufactured by Spaans Babcock it is 13 meters long and 20 tonnes in weight
- The design also features a fish pass that will allow fish to more easily travel upstream (and will count them)
...and some further info from the web...
I wondered what that was! How exciting :-)
ReplyDeleteSome mates of mine live on a small holding in the North York Dales. It's beautiful - rolling hills & a stream running through. They investigated hydro options a few years ago but came up against some old tax law from the days when waterwheels were at the heart of industrial power.
ReplyDeleteHowever, current advice from the Energy Saving Trust implies things may have changed since my friends investigated: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/content/hydro