We're getting there!

Visitors to Torrs Hydro may have noticed the flurry of activity down on site. As the rain has eased off, volunteers have been preparing to replace Archie's bottom bearing.
A coffer dam has been built in order to install a second stop log channel. The stop logs have arrived (larch) and are being placed in a specially designed rack on the metal safety casing. Next job will be getting lifting gear in situ to raise Archie and replace his bearing.
Let's hope he doesn't find the operation too painful!

A spot of bother

As many will have noticed, Archie is  not well.
In late September the bottom bearing failed. Directors and Volunteers are working as hard as they can to get things sorted. There has been much discussion, measuring, drawing up of plans, sourcing of materials, and so hopefully, soon some action.
There has to be scaffolding erected, digging at the tailrace, stop logs put in place and then lifting the old bearing and replacing with a new one. It is a shame that the timing of the failure was at the end of the summer as the rivers are now nicely full. Torrs Hydro New Mills appreciates the support of Stockport Hydro in looking at ways of resolving the difficulties.  

Back on the blog

It's been a while since anything was put on this blog site. We have been busy elsewhere, (apologies for that) but now we are trying to update it a little more regularly.
2015 has seen Archie generate his 1,000,000th kWh.
Added to that, Torrs Hydro is more than half way through repaying its loan.
It takes commitment and hard work to run a community project like ours and we have a great, dedicated team, but this year we have been able to welcome some new volunteers! This ensures we have the support we need to keep generating clean, green electricity.

The rains returned

After 3 very dry summer months the rains have returned and the start of October has seen more electricity produced than the whole of July, August and September.

Shares issue

Later this week we will be starting our latest shares issue - look out for details on here about how you can become part of the UK's first Community owned renewable energy organisation.

A good start to 2014

With large parts of the country receiving lots of rain you wont be surprised to read that Archie has had a good month - the 4th best on record.

Look out for info on the upcoming AGM and a list of open days for the rest of the year.

Halloween at the Hydro

Torr weir looked very spooky last night as New Mills celebrated Halloween with pumpkin competitions and lots of fancy dress going on.

Green Buildings

 

 

As part of a drive to showcase 'green' buildings in the Peak District Torrs Hydro will be holding an open day on Saturday and Sunday 12 and 13th of October - it would be great to see you there - lots of other things to see and do at the same time in New Mills - Millennium walkway, Heritage Centre, pubs and cafes

http://green-buildings.reflowstudio.com/

https://www.facebook.com/events/377244672407006/?context=create

New Mills Festival '13 - round and round and round

A really busy busy time of year for New Mills - the festival starts tomorrow (Friday 13th) and Archie is involved in two events.


First of all tomorrow afternoon local schools will be on site from 3pm to create a new film for White Van Man's famous song about Archie - then later in the month there is an open day on 28th of September and Archie will also be nicely lit up on the evening of the lantern parade.

Full details of the festival program can be found here

Details of all events in New Mills can be found here

Open Day - 31 August - 3-5pm

As part of the Community Energy fortnight 'Archie' will have an Open day this Saturday 31 August


Come and take a look behind the scenes of the UK's first owned and run Community Hydro.

For other ideas of what to see and do in New Mills www.facebook.com/visitnewmills or search for New Mills on Tripadvisor.

Community Energy fortnight - 24 August to 8 September

Join us for a day of activities including tours of community owned hydro electric schemes in Stockport and New Mills. A coach leaves Stockport Town Hall at 10am to visit Stockport Hydro. From there we will go onto Stockport Masonic Guildhall, 169-171 Wellington Road, SK1 3UA for a lunch reception and energy saving workshops (starts 12 noon). Finally, we''ll visit Torrs Hydro in New Mills for a tour and refreshments (starts 3pm). The coach will leave to return to Stockport Town Hall at 5.00pm.

Please feel free to join us at any point during the day.

Stockport Hydro is a renewable energy scheme at Otterspool Wier on the river Goyt near Marple, Stockport. It has been up and running since October 2012. In addition to contributing to a reduced carbon footprint, Stockport Hydro hope in future years to be able to generate surplus funds, allowing them to support and contribute to a range of other community projects. With two Archimedes screws, which can operate independently and at variable speeds, they have been able to generate power even at times of low water levels: a first, we believe, for schemes such as this.

Torrs Hydro is an example of the power of communities to take action and begin to address the challenges that climate change presents to us all. They are a community owned and community funded organisation. Their reverse Archimedes screw turbine (known as Archie) is designed to produce around 240 000 kWh of electricity over a typical year. This is the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of around 50 typical British homes and saves over 150 tonnes of CO2 emissions compared to conventional electricity generation. Archie has been producing power since September 2008 and has now passed the 700,000 kWh (700 MWh) mark.

Bookings are required for this event, so please click the button on the right to sign up, or email: membership.northwest@co-operative.coopThe Community Energy Fortnight

The Community Energy Fortnight is an initiative of the Community Energy Coalition. Running from 24th August - 8th September, events will be taking place right across the UK. Through these events, we aim to engage and inspire people about the wide-ranging benefits of community energy, and to generate support for our vision of community energy at scale in the UK by 2020.

New Mills Festival '13 - Lantern Parade

One of the highlights of the New Mills calendar (and Torrs Hydro calendar) is when thousands of people parade past Archie during the New Mills festival.

Each year the town is transformed by thousands (5,000+ last year) of people who have spent weeks making amazing lanterns - they parade through the Torrs riverside park at dusk and this year will finish on Market Street where they will be thoroughly entertained entertained and surrounded by a festival of food and drink !

All of this is free t anyone who wants to attend - but its obviously not free to organise - the cost of insuring an event like this would make most people say 'how much !!'

Fortunately we are surrounded by amazing local people and festival goers who help to make this a reality with their fund raising activities - this year we are also going 'digital' to allow those who do enjoy the festival but arent close enough to help raise funds to make a small donation - we have nearly reached our target and with your help we can get on with the important stuff of actually helping you to enjoy yourselves during the festival - all you have to do is click on the link and donate anything from a £1 - the more you give the more you get back as gifts - just click and you'll see what we mean

New Mills Lantern Parade


Archie will also be transformed with his own light show so do take a look as you walk over the bridge

Great weather for ducklings

After weeks of sunshine and no rain the recent storms brought Archie to life again only to be stopped by... ducklings !

A small family of ducks (including two duckings) had taken a liking to the area close by to the Hydro intake - to be on the safe side we decided to wait until they had moved on - they can still be found further up the River Goyt near to Goytside farm along with the Herons and Canada geese.

A few drops of rain later today will have Archie powering away again.

Congratulations

Congratulations to New Mills very own Richard Body one of the founding Directors of Torrs Hydro being awarded an MBE in the honours list - well deserved

Torrs 'dry'dro !

 















A few more hours of rain and Archie will be turning again.

Its been several weeks since we have generated because of an unusually dry April - even with all the snow it wasn't enough to get the rivers Sett and Goyt high enough.

Spring has shown its face though with plenty of wildlife in and around the Torrs Riverside Park especially lots of activity from grey wagtails.

AGM - 2013

New Mills School students present 'Solar Schools'

A fine day for an AGM, although the several dry days leading up to 2 March also meant that Archie woudl not be running for the Open Day planned for the afternoon.

Will Griffin tells all about 'Sticky Exhibits'

A good turnout listened to a summary of the previous year at Torrs Hydro - our best year so far had resulted in a £16K profit and agreement from the shareholders that £2K should be made available for funding local community projects.

The meeting also voted in two new Directors and bade farewell to Will Griffin who has been a Director for the last two years.

Throughout there were many well thought out questions for the Directors to answer from the shareholders

The stars of the show where New Mills School students who presented their Solar Schools Project to the AGM with great style.

A good turnout for AGM 2013

Visit New Mills

As many locals know there's always loads of stuff going on in New Mills - music, art, theatre, comedy, sport (comedy and sport not purposely side by side!) and much more besides - did I mention the great shops?

If you want your finger on the pulse and want to find out what's on all in one place :



on Twitter @VisitNewMills or also 
on Facebook Visit New Mills

If you're an organiser of anything New Mills based then drop them a line visitnewmills@hotmail.co.uk with the details to get your event listed.

They even have our open days listed so they must be good ! 

The fantastic logo was created by New Mills based graphic designer Karl Sinfield

Open days - 2013

 

• Torrs Hydro Open Days 2013
   
  • Saturday March 2nd
  • Sunday May 12th
  • Saturday July 6th
  • Saturday September 28th
   
   Project volunteers will be on hand to talk to visitors and answer questions from 1-3pm - we may even have hot drinks again !

New Mills School going solar

Well you wouldn't think with the recent deluge of rain that solar power was feasible in North Derbyshire, especially New Mills - how wrong could you be!

As part of the Solar Schools project New Mills schools is now almost a third of the way to raising the £12,000 needed to turn the school solar.

Solar Schools is a brand new project that’s putting clean energy in classrooms all over the country. Schools set a fund raising target for their very own solar roof, then everyone chips in to help make it happen.

It’s a chance for pupils, parents, local businesses, former students and everyone else to do something good for their school, their community, and the whole world.

Torrs Hydro like the project so much that we have donated £100 to keep the momentum going in the fund raising - it would be great if you could also help - minimum donations are £5 and can be done here

There are also many separate residential system in place in New Mills - once again leading the way with renewable energy.

Here's to another succesful year

As 2012 draws to a close it's time to reflect and consider what was good about 2012 and what we can do to make 2013 even better.

The past year was our fourth full year of running and and a year where we were able to start giving money to our community, this will continue next year when our goal will be to grant even more money than 2012 - the way the weather has been recently and the amount of rain in our rivers that is definitely achievable.

The year was also our most productive from a renewable energy point of view and surprisingly one of our wettest months in that time was July when the Hydro is normally stationary with the rivers Sett and Goyt being much drier.

'Archie' couldn't do any of this without the fantastic support we get from our share holders, volunteers and the local community.

The Directors and volunteers at Torrs Hydro hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas holiday and look forward to seeing everyone in the New year at our next open day.