Hydro

1,000 years ago the Domesday Book had over 5,000 entries for watermills across England, providing energy for milling, iron forging and textile manufacture.

Today hydro power can be exploited for the production of electricity, capturing the energy in flowing water and converting it to electricity, by means of powering a generator. Although hydro power schemes are one of the greenest ways to produce electricity large scale schemes do have associated environmental impacts. The most obvious impact of dam schemes is the flooding of vast areas of land, leading to the loss of agricultural and forestry land.

More recently it has been discovered that large scale schemes can contribute just as much carbon dioxide emissions than conventional sources, trapping decaying vegetation and giving off significant quantities of greenhouse gas emissions.

We support hydro power sourced from small scale projects, which can provide a cheap, emission free, reliable source of electricity and if well designed they blend in with their surroundings and have minimal negative environmental impact.

An example of a small scale hydro generator is Barton Lock Hydro Station. Situated within a disused pumphouse in Manchester City Centre, it is the first shipping based canal hydro scheme in the UK.

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