UK — Settle hydro

Nicola Mares • 15 March 2020
Author: Alicia Webb

Settle Hydro is a community owned micro hydroelectric scheme, with a generation capacity of 50 kW. It is located on the Ribble river, in Settle, North Yorkshire. The project is a reverse Archimedian screw design, which uses part of the old mill race. It generates enough electricity annually to cover about 50 houses.

Background

riverSettle weir was built across the Ribble to provide head for the Bridge End Mill, which historically milled corn. In the late 18th century cotton spinning became the main employment in the town and the mills were converted from corn milling to cotton spinning. The mill still turns, but it is no longer connected to anything and the mill building has been converted to housing.

Project development

The project was awarded planning Permission in February 2009. Construction work was undertaken by Lakeland Marine Construction and began in June 2009. First the old mill race was excatated, and then the Archimedian screw, imported from Germany, was installed in October 2009. The project began generating renewable electricity in November 2009.

Community ownership

turbineSettle Hydro was established as an ‘Industrial and Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community’ with the specific purpose of owning the Settle Weir Hydro Electric Scheme. Shares were issued in September 2009 to raise the necessary capital, and these days the Society generates revenue by selling hydro-electricity.                                                                                

Any surplus revenue is used by the Society to benefit the local community through its twin aims of regenerating the local economy and promoting the environmental sustainability of Settle District.
The project cost was around £410,000, and a share offer was opened to raise £100,000 - with the rest of the money coming from grants and a bank loan to be repaid from revenue generated by selling electricity to the national grid. Each share in Settle Hydro Ltd has a nominal value of £1.00. The minimum shareholding for an individual is £250 and the maximum (set by law) is £20,000.

Challenges

Revenues

The pioneering nature of this project resulted in some unknown costs, and certain aspects of the scheme were unavoidably more expensive than anticipated. The early stages of the project also experienced unseasonably low rainfall, and the two factors put an unexpected pressure on project cash flow.

Although the project initially went ahead with 165 individual shareholders, some additional shares have been issued in order to underpin the viability of the company in the interests of our current shareholders. The additional cash will also allow directors to work on ways of increasing the project's output.

Fish migration

As part of the Environment Agency (EA) licence, Settle Hydro agreed to do some work on the weir's fish pass to improve it's effectiveness. They removed a large amount of debris that was restricting flow, and enlarged the notches in the fish pass steps.

During project construction, the Environment Agency (EA) realised that they had overlooked a problem with river levels that would occur during operation of the hydro plant. Apparently the adjusted levels would be detrimental to fish migration, and all work in the riverbed was stopped until a plan could be formulated. Eventually it was agreed that a new wall would be built (at the EA's expense) just downstream of the screw outflow.

A marker was attached to the fishpass wall, to enable visual monitoring of the level of water flowing down the fishpass. This will ensure that it does not fall below the threshold specified by the Environment Agency.

Continuing the work

An organisation called Water Power Enterprises or H2oPE is working with other communities to build community owned hydro plants. They aim to build hydro plants in rivers all over the UK, using existing weirs, used in conjunction with mill wheels in the industrial revolution, and Archimedian screw technology.

More information

Settle hydro blog
Settle hydro website
An article on the project in the Guardian

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