The screw in action - (15/09)

Many of you not local to New Mills have been asking to see footage of the screw in action - well here it is courtesy of our very own local Steven Spielberg Ken !

Messing about in the river... (11/09)

The original Torr Mill on the site of Torrs Hydro

Those passing through the Torrs in the last couple of days may be wondering what has been happening in the river beside the Torrs Hydro.

Following last weekends storms and heavy rains throughout the country large deposits of 'rubbish' ended up in the area around the weir - bikes, microwave oven, shopping trolley, logs, even an old mill stone which has been donated to the New Mills Heritage Centre.

Over the past two days Sean and Till (two of the Directors of Torrs Hydro New Mills) have been up to chests in water removing the debris which improves the flow of water to the screw and in doing so increased the output of electricity to the New Mills Co-op.

Its not expected that this activity will become a regular occurrence, but next time it does we will be asking local volunteers for assistance to speed the process up - so be prepared to get your feet wet !

Ten thousand hits ! - (10/09)

What started out a few months back as just one or two hits a week on the Torrs Hydro blog very soon snow balled and later this week we go through the magic 10,000 hits mark - which is amazing really.

When you then take a look at the stats and see just who is looking at our blog - we have visitors over the past seven days from :

UK, Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Korea, Finland, Holland, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Thailand, USA, Canada, Switzerland, Poland, Russia and not forgetting New Mills !

The rain came down... (09/09)

Well summer came and went and just as it was leaving left a deluge of rain across the country with 68 flood warnings in place on Sunday.

New Mills was no exception with torrential rain throughout Friday evening and Saturday causing the rivers Sett and Goyt to rise alarmingly.

The Hydro system worked as planned and the 'head' sensors detected too much water and automatically shut the system down as planned.

After several hours of removing washed down debris from the river - bike, shopping trolley, microwave oven to name but a few - the system was started up again only to be hit by another deluge later in the weekend.

All systems were go again by Sunday afternoon with excellent maintenance support to THNM by WRE and on site by in New Mills by Mann Power Consulting to assist in performing system checks and advise on the clearance of the intake.

Torrs Hydro New Mills - (06/09)

Just less than 6 months ago we started to create Torrs Hydro New Mills, as of Thursday afternoon last week we pressed the 'on' button and that means we are now creating renewable energy for New Mills.

WRE who have worked long and hard over that period finished the commissioning exercise and have now handed the 'keys to the door' over to Torrs Hydro New Mills Ltd.

Daily Operational checks are being undertaken to ensure smooth running of the screw.

So far the screw has produced just over 1 Megawatt hour of power which is the equivalent of over ten thousand light bulbs running for an hour !

Bit of education for any fellow geeks out there :
A Megawatt-hour (MWh) is : 1 megawatt acting over a period of 1 hour. One megawatt-hour is equal to 1,000 kilowatt-hours or 1 million watt-hours. The primary difference between a megawatt and a megawatt-hour is that “megawatt” measures the capacity of an electric generator and “megawatt-hour” measures the actual amount of electricity it produces over a certain period of time.

Invitation from Water Power Enterprises - (02/09)

INVITATION TO THE LAUNCH OF YORKSHIRE'S FIRST COMMUNITY HYDRO SCHEME SHARE OFFER

You are warmly invited to the launch of Settle Hydro's Share Offer on Saturday 6 September, 10am, at Victoria Hall, Settle. Settle Hydro Ltd - a development of Settle Area Regeneration Team, StART, Settle District Chamber of Trade and Settle District Going Green - plans to install a 50kW hydro power plant at Bridge End Weir, in Settle. The plant would be Yorkshire's first community-owned and surplus monies from the sale of hydro electricity would fund local environmental and community projects. The share offer gives individuals, local businesses and social investors the chance to become members of a ground breaking renewable electricity project that will provide clean, green electricity. It's a unique way to demonstrate a commitment to a sustainable environmental project.

Torrs Hydro in action - (31/08)

As we approach the handover of Torrs Hydro New Mills from project into production, all the hard work is just about completed, commissioning has been successful to date and the Archimedes screw has connectivity to the New Mills Co-op and the National Grid.

The picture below shows the screw running at approximately 30% of capacity - this is governed automatically by the river level with the sluice gate being adjusted to ensure that an agreed level of water goes over the weir - the more water (not unusual for New Mills) the more electricity is produced.




Also a quick glimpse inside the control room of Torrs Hydro - its hardly Star Trek, but the control systems ensure the correct amount of water is flowing at all times and will automatically shut down the screw and sluice gate if a problem should ever arise.