Time to look at microhydro

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The home-made water wheel

Today we have started the study of four more rivers to see whether any are capable of generating electricity for us. A Feasibility study is being carried out by a London-based company that specialises in micro systems. They  have experience installing systems around the developing world, and have a number of solar power schemes that have just been relocated to Haiti to help in the disaster zone.

Back in the Western Isles, the weather for the survey work is suitably wet and grey -  I thought everyone knew to bring wellies when coming to Harris! We have been looking at streams/rivers in Rhenigedale, Urgha, Kyle Scalpay and Govig. We’re obviously looking for some volume of water, ideally some drop (head) and either electricity grid, or domestic properties where we can dispose of the electricity we generate. These are all very small schemes, but with the new Feed-in Tariffs due to start in April, paying nearly 20p per unit of electricity generated -it starts to make sense.

An earlier attempt at hydro-electicity

Whilst surveying the sites, we came upon a scheme which one of the local residents has been working on for a number of years. The loch at Govig has a weir and intake pipe which fed an old Pelton-type turbine. The electrics never really worked, so a traditional water wheel was built further down stream. Unfortunately, the tide eventually got the better of that idea.

There’s all sorts  of remains to be seen there – all of which give us hope that if we overcome the engineering difficulties, there’s plenty of water resource to make a viable project.
The surveyor’s done the easy bit. Now there’s a few weeks of desk work, trying to determine how much water there will be all year round, speaking to SEPA about extracting water, and speaking to SSE about connecting to the electricity grid.
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Posted in Hydro-electric schemes | 3 Comments »

3 Responses

  1. geoff brown says:
    February 17, 2010 at 11:42 am

    Hi David,really interesting , practical stuff -is anyone still around who remembers the old private system in action?

    best wishes

    Geoff

  2. donnie says:
    February 22, 2010 at 11:51 pm

    Hi David

    I like the new banner and look of the site – great stuff.

  3. Test Comment says:
    February 27, 2010 at 5:34 pm

    Geoff, thanks for yor comments. The guy who built the waterwheel is still fit and well and we will keep in touch with him if we develop the scheme. I think he’d be very pleased to see a turbine up an running in his village.

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