Microhydroelectric Project Visit

On Wednesday 19th April 2006 a group of acumen7 members and some guests assembled for dinner at the Mill at Rode in the village of Rode on the river Frome near Bath. By 8pm our full compliment of eleven sat down to an excellent meal in the main restaurant and this was enjoyed by all.

Although excellent food in congenial surroundings is always worth travelling for, there was a serious purpose for being where we were. The river Frome we discovered is the fastest flowing river in England and it is for this reason that there are old mills at regular intervals along its length. One of these is just downstream from the Mill at Rode in the village of Tellisford and here over the last few years something quite remarkable has happened. Under the ownership of Anthony Battersby,  the old mill is being transformed beyond its former glory to something fit for the 21st Century. He told us a little about it over dinner but as with many things seeing is believing.

After a good night’s rest and by all accounts very good breakfasts in various B&Bs in the area we all assembled in the car park of The George in Norton St Philip, before heading towards Tellisford. Anthony met us on site and provided us all with an enthusiastically commentated site visit and suddenly the reality of micro-hydroelectric power became real and tangible. Concrete was being poured in the generator room as we visited and a visit several hundred metres upstream to the weir and an explanation of what had been achieved to date gave us all food for thought and an admiration of Anthony’s tenacity to get this project completed.

Later back at the Mill at Rode in the meeting room and despite a technology glitch which proves that ‘a flat screen does not a conference room make’, Anthony gave us his presentation which took us from planning application through to approval to sell electricity into the national grid. This included a detailed explanation of the finances which put the whole project into perspective. Unsurprisingly, although Anthony is part of the Mendip Power Group, his project will be the first to go on line sometime in the next few months. His approach to the project has been unconstrained by unrealistic programming and it would be fair to say that financially he has taken the long term view.

Nevertheless given that there are potentially 30,000 plus sites of a similar nature in Britain and these sites are easily identifiable due to our predecessors search for water power in different eras, we all agreed that we ignore this resource at our peril. However, it is pretty clear that there are not 30,000 Anthony Battersbys out there waiting to repeat the Tellisford experience. Maybe acumen7 can help with this.

Following Anthony’s presentation we had the usual acumen7 meeting where we discussed in detail the up and coming seminar we are due to hold regarding nuclear power – this seemed quite appropriate, if slightly ironic, in the circumstances.

We all agreed that we would like to return to Tellisford, and take advantage of Anthony’s hospitality again, in about a year when the project should be complete. I think we all left considerably the wiser for what we had seen and some resolve to see if there was a commercial opportunity waiting to be harnessed along with the power of water.

With costs of between £200,000 and £600,000 per plant and an income of circa £30,000 per annum there could be an attractive business proposition with a reasonable rate of return while saving the planet at the same time. Must be worth a shot.