RWE and Northumbrian Water Announce Hydroelectric Project

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--A new hydroelectric power station will be built at Selset Reservoir in the Tees Valley, England, by Northumbrian Water (Durham, England) and RWE npower renewables (Swindon, England), a U.K. subsidiary of German energy giant RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany).

The station will be located 14 kilometres northwest of Barnard Castle and will generate up to 750 kilowatts of electricity, approximately 4,000 megawatt-hours per year. The power will be fed into the national grid and should be sufficient for about 1,000 homes. The Selset project is the latest example in a growing trend toward small hydro schemes being proposed throughout the U.K.

This is the first hydroelectric project in England for RWE npower renewables, but the company is involved in projects in Scotland and Wales. Northumbrian Water already operates a hydropower plant in Northumberland at Kielder Water, the largest man-made reservoir in northern Europe, with RWE npower. The facility generates 20,000 megawatt-hours, sufficient to meet the average annual needs of about 5,000 households.

"This project in the Tees Valley is one of several energy-generation schemes Northumbrian Water is currently developing," said Dr Colin Price, Northumbrian Water's technical director. "We believe that creating renewable energy where we can is the responsible way forward for the business, our customers and the environment."

Tim James, project manager at RWE npower renewables, said: "We have a number of hydroelectric projects in Wales and Scotland, and this is the first we have constructed in England. It will make a useful contribution to U.K. renewable energy targets."

Construction work for the £2.5 million Selset hydroelectric project will begin in the coming months. The work will include the integration with the existing water supply operations, improvement of an access road and construction of a small building, approximately the size of a double garage, which will house the turbine and generator. The water level of Selset reservoir, which holds 15,320 million litres when full, will be lowered to facilitate safe working conditions during construction.

Last September, British Waterways (Watford, England) and the Small Hydro Company (Abingdon, England) revealed plans to build 25 small-scale hydropower projects on the banks of British Waterways' 2,200-mile waterway network. At a cost of £120 million ($192.2) over three years, the company expects the projects to generate 210,000 megawatt-hours per year and offset an estimated 110,000 tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions. The first two hydropower projects will be located on the Severn and Trent rivers, with commissioning of the first project expected later this year. For additional information, see related news item from September 25, 2009 - British Waterways to Develop 25 Small Hydropower Projects.

In addition, the U.K.'s Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has targeted 50 potential sites for small hydropower projects, located on the sites of abandoned water mills.

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the Wind Energy, Geothermal, Hydroelectric, Landfill Gas-to-Energy and Utility-Scale Solar power plants throughout North America, and is now expanding coverage across the world.

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