Viable hydro solution for Co-op
June 21st 2009

The Co-operative Group and the social enterprise developer,Water Power Enterprises (h2oPE),have been working together over the last two years to develop an award winning solution that has made micro hydro schemes commercially viable for the 21st Century – Katie Hague,energy and environment relationship manager describes the project

Social enterprise h2oPE has a vision to tackle climate change through small community owned hydro schemes. Their mission is to ‘Re-use the infra-structure of the Industrial Revolution to create a new Green Revolution’ and they have set themselves the tough target to install 5000kW of hydro capacity by 2020.

They were a natural fit to work alongside the Cooperative Group to realise these aims. The Co-operative Group is not only the worlds largest consumer cooperative, operating in a range of business areasincluding food retail shops, travel agents, pharmacies, agriculture and funeral homes, but also has a long history in renewable energy. They have their own wind farm in Cambridgeshire, one of their iconic HQ buildings in Manchester clad in PV, one of the UK’s largest green energy supply contracts and a challenging target to generate 15% of their energy requirements from renewable sources and a commitment to reduce their energy consumption by 25% both by 2012.

When h2oPE approached the Co-operative Group about assisting with funding and the purchase of the energy, a collaboration between the two organisations was a perfect synergy.

One of the greatest challenges that initially faced h2oPE was identifying a suitable site for their first scheme. A weir on the River Goyt in New Mills on the edge of the Peak District offered everything they required.The weir is some 3 metres high and is situated below the confluence of two rivers, the Goyt and the Sett. The amount of power produced from any site is a function of the height of the weir and the volume of water. Weir heights in excess of 1 metre are required for a site to be technically capable of delivering power. Crucially, the land was owned by the Town Council and their support and permission was essential. The power output of the turbine was determined at 70kW and plans were put in motion to raise the finance.

h2oPE engaged the local community through a series of public meetings and exhibitions, which showed overwhelming support for the idea and also demonstrated that local people would like the opportunity of owning the hydro site. h2oPE explored the possibility of such an ‘ownership vehicle’ and came up with the Industrial Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community, a legal model with a pedigree stretching back to the early Rochdale Pioneers.Working in partnership with the local community, Torrs Hydro New Mills was created as the Industrial Provident Society who would own the hydro site.

The cost for the scheme amounted to 300k. h2oPE secured the majority of this total from a combination of grant money (from the Co-operative Group, the East Midlands Development Agency and the Peak District National Park) and from working with Torrs Hydro to launch a community share offer. It was necessary to top this up with a bank loan, but many high street names were not interested because of fears over the commercial viability of the scheme and concerns over repayment. However, the Co-operative were willing to listen and offered the remaining money required through debt finance. In addition h2oPE were in contact with the Energy and Environment Team at the Co- operative who were able to offer to buy the energy generated from the turbine. This was all linked together using a ground breaking tri party Power Purchase Agreement that guaranteed Torrs Hydro a price for their energy for a set period of time. This is often the stumbling block when looking for finance for projects of this type because without a guaranteed purchaser most banks would be un-willing to even give initial consideration. This arrangement was the key to making this project commercially viable.

It was agreed early in the collaboration that the turbine would be linked directly to the local New Mills Cooperative shop, which was only 300m away from the weir. In reality this was not an easy task as the wire literally rises up the side of the river gorge, under the bridge,through woodland and under the road! But, a far more complicated task was the delivery of the 13m long, 11 tonne turbine (an Archimedean screw), which had to be lowered into position with a 60 tonne crane on a high bridge over the river on the main road through the town.

The whole process took some 2 years from the initial concept to watching the turbine turn for the first time.

The turbine is now capable of generating 260,000kwh/p.a. and at points of high flow on the river generates enough energy to export back to the grid.

The Co-operative Energy and Environment Team offered their expertise on these matters to h2oPE and Torrs Hydro and assisted in the installation of an export meter at the turbine site to allow this sell back to occur.

Now this project is up and running the structure, format and legalities are all in place to make it possible to scale this type of scheme out to any site in the UK.h2oPE now have some 100 potential sites that they are looking at with a dozen sites moving forward for installation in 2010 and 2011. h2oPE are now working with the local communities of Settle and Huddersfield for installations to be constructed in 2009 to make their vision of 5000kW of micro hydro generation a reality.

Just to add to the growing enthusiasm and momentum for the schemes, the Co-operative Group and h2oPE were recently presented with the NEMEX Renewables Innovation Award at the 2009

Environment and Energy Awards. This was an excellent conclusion to two years of hard work and dedication to a worthy cause that has:

• Resurrected a historic technology and made it fit for the 21st Century

• Developed a scheme that will be generating renewable energy and tackling climate change for years to come,and…

• Is not only innovative, but highly collaborative, commercially viable and is now going to be rolled out to many other sites.

And as the Co-operative like to say….it really is ‘Good for Everyone.’

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