Objective
To demonstrate the potential economic and technical advantages and feasibility of the following: integrating hydro-electric generation units into a water level management structure; modernising an historic waterpower site; exploiting an ultra low head hydro site, using low cost, hydropower units. Further, the project aims to promote renewable energy, through linking the turbines to a permanent exhibition in the mill. The project will also provide a precedent for a unique collaboration of a river regulatory authority with a turbine manufacturer and a site owner.
lnnovative aspects: modernising an historical waterpower site; integrating hydropower units into a water level management structure; exploiting an ultra-low head site; use of innovative, low-cost modular hydropower units.
Expected energy saving: 6.66 GWh. Expected payback time: 11.9 years.
The proposed site is Houghton Mill, in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK. The Mill lies on the Great River Ouse. The Mill is owned and administered by the National Trust (NT), and is open to the public. Currently there are 8,000 visitors a year to the Mill, and when the planned developments are completed, 15,000 visitors per annum are expected.
The Mill is a historic waterpower site, originally used for cornmilling. The mill was closed in 1930, and the two breastshot waterwheels were removed, for flood alleviation, and replaced by automatic sluices within the mill races. These sluices are now controlled by the Environment Agency (EA). As part of national heritage lottery funding to develop the site, the sluice on the north side of the mill is to be removed, to make way for the re-instatement of a breastshot waterwheel. To maintain the flood defence capability of the site, a new sluice needs to be built close to the mill.
To link up with this restoration, this project proposes to rehabilitate this historic waterpower site by using two modern, cost-effective "Polyturbine' hydropower units. These units will be integrated into the new sluice, to be built by the EA, and will themselves form part of the flood defence and water level management capability.
The maximum flow through each turbine is 2250 l/s, giving a total of 4500 l/s. The gross head currently is 1.37 m, and the expected net head at maximum flow through the turbines is 1.2 m. The turbines will generate a maximum power of 32.2 kW. The estimated gross electrical output is 220,201 kWh/year. Over the course of the plant lifetime, the estimated total renewable energy production will be 6.66 GWh. This will mean a net saving of 4,475 kg of CO2 emissions. The estimated cost of the energy is UKL 0.081/kWh.
Innovative Technology
* The integration of modular "Polyturbine" hydropower units into a water level management structure. Use of the turbines to pass flood flows, will allow a smaller, and so cheaper, flooddefence sluice to be constructed. Renewable energy will be generated, as well as an income from the sale of the electricity.
Innovative features of the "Polyturbine"
* Iarge number of standard parts, to reduce cost
* waterways made from glass re-inforced plastic (GRP). By using these GRP moulds as formers during civil works, further cost savings are made.
* use of a multi-pole induction generator, to allow a direct-drive, leading to higher efficiency, compactness, and reduced maintenance
* water-cooled sleeve bearing to support the propellor, to prevent risk of oil contamination
* use of two modular hydropower units, which can be switched on or off independently, rather than one larger machine, to allow limited flow control.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences physical sciences classical mechanics fluid mechanics fluid dynamics
- engineering and technology materials engineering
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy hydroelectricity
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Coordinator
United Kingdom
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