WILLINGTON PARISH PLAN – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP
COMMUNITY MICRO HYDRO POWER FOR WILLINGTON
click above picture for more information about Micro Hydro Power Generation
The headline news now seems to be permanently dominated by the rising cost of living including fuel, food, and housing. The rest of the news is taken up by the challenge of global warming and the depletion of natural resources.
The politicians, media and business have all leapt onto the ‘Green’ bandwagon and champion the use of solar, wind and nuclear power to replace our dwindling oil and gas supplies. What seems to be lacking from their thinking is harness the energy of WATER POWER.
Britain has for centuries powered industry with energy generated by the flow of water. Our country is endowed with generous amounts of water that flows freely and quickly down our rivers. It is estimated that there are in excess of 20,000 old mill sites, hilly areas with spring-fed streams and rivers with 1000’s of weirs not linked to mill facilities.
We are especially fortunate in Willington to have the River Great Ouse flowing through our village and a weir at Willington Lock with a good head (drop) of water. This could be capable of generating 75 to 100 kilowatt (kW) of electricity per hour from it, if linked to a Micro Hydro Power generating plant.
What is Micro Hydro Power?
Hydro power is a means of generating electricity from water power. The term Micro Hydro Power refers to systems that generate 100kW or less. A 100kW turbine produces 100 standard units of electricy (as shown on electricity bills) per hour.
What are the Benefits?
- Fuel-free source of power
- Environmental impact is negligible
- Renewable energy source
- Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
- Constant generation over long periods, not reliant on the sun or wind
- Good correlation between supply and demand (more hydro power produced in the winter)
- Long lifetime of the system, typically 25 years or more
- Low maintenance
- Payback for grid connected systems, often 10 years or less
The Willington Village Plan was initiated to help focus on what the people of our community wanted for our village and bring us together to achieve these aims. We can all act together to help bring Micro Hydro Power to Willington and generate funds to cover the cost of heating and lighting for OUR COMMUNITY BUILDINGS, the Memorial Village Hall, St Lawrence Church, the Methodist Chapel and the Willington Lower School. Any money left over could be used to fund other projects.
Julia Buckroyd and I have started to investigate the feasibility of such a scheme and we have been encouraged to discover that because there was a mill at the Willington Lock site and the head is 1.75 to 1.8m with good flow and width, it is a viable scheme. There are new government and private business grants starting to become available for environmental community based schemes such as ours.
This is an enormous project with a large capital budget for a small village, but one that will have a positive and lasting benefit for us all. If you would like to get involved and have any particular skills that would be of benefit, we would welcome your support and time; to bring this exciting project to fruition.