Herefordshire Hydro is...
The first known users of Hydropower in Herefordshire, and the UK in general were the Romans. There are still sites about which were probably originally engineered by them, and which can be re-engineered today. The earliest recongnisable site by archeological dating is 698 AD. Mills often included eel fisheries. With today's food supply problems fish ponds with hydropower units could well come back - see Blog
For Herefordshire Mills listed in the Doomsday Survey
http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/education/Watermills.htm there were 116. This site also has a link to the recent Mills survey where over 330 sites were identified.
Herefordshire Hydro is.a group of people living in Herefordshire and the Marches of Wales who are interested in generating some of their electricity from the power in the streams and rivers and through reviving old mill sites.
We plan to meet regularly and to develop our expertise in feasibility studies, grant seeking, and installations. If you'd like to know more or to consider offering financial or technical assistance to Group Members please get in touch.
This website is being developed as a major source of technical and other data for Microhydro installations. All contributions gratefully received. The appropriate link, and if necessary a small description will then be added to this website. Either send to the webmaster or use the contact form
PLEASE SEE THE BLOG FOR THE LATEST ANNOUNCEMENTS
EG the new file on Boat Mills
A link is being established with the Grühaus Project site's Hydropower section at
http://www.grunweb.org.uk/page23.html which has equipment illustrations and other technical data and is being crosslinked with this site. Together with another site in New Zealand, which due to many habitations being "off grid" is far more developed for microhydro than the UK
A Laymans Guidebook on how to develop a small Hydro site has now been posted for downloading on the Data Files here
The international Forum for Hydropower is here Sustainable Hydropower - Welcome!
A group for general and international information and contacts on Microhydro is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microhydro/ which has interesting data in it's Files section, as does this group
For "run of river" [floating microhydro] see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/riverats/
One very important point. Like all Sustainable Energy, Hydropower is "anti-inflationary" in that the value of it's energy output rises in line with the price rises of other "conventional" energy. This point is covered by the SUSTENG..xls program shown on this page As installations can, with good maintenance, last for a hundred years or more, a long term view of Hydropower is desireable.
British Waterways are planning to install hydropower on it's canal system and rivers see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7936265.stm
Local Authorities can consider harnessing hydropower within their areas, raising revenue therefrom to defray other Council expenses, and possibly reduce the amount of Council Tax required
Just over Herefordshire's Northern boundary, about 6 miles from Ludlow is probably the oldest Microhydro site in UK, and one of the earliest in the World, dating from around 1881-2 See
Benson Hydro Electric Scheme, Titterstone Clee Hill, South Shropshire, UK
http://www.thecleehilltrust.co.uk/benson-hydro-dam/brief-history.asp
http://www.thecleehilltrust.co.uk/benson-hydro-dam/Titterstone-hydro-scheme.asp
The Clee Hill Trust are considering re-building/re-commissioning the installation
There are probably quite a few similar sites in Herefordshire and surrounding areas, where streams rise high up a hill, with the possibility of installing a holding pond, pentstock, and high head turbine at the foot of the hill. A survey of the location and potential of such sites has yet to be carried out.
Another very old site, built in 1922 is http://www.r-e-a.net/installations/plas-yn-vivod-hydro-station
Webmaster ferrand "at" madasafish.com. A Ferrand Stobart & Associates, Ludlow, UK +44(0)1 568 780837
UPDATES AS OF 06/06/2011 Picolo methods for very small turbines - on downloads
Army Corp of Engineers to Focus More Closely on Hydropower Opportunities
Navigation bar changes 02/03/2011
Link to worldwide Renewables Directory below:-
