Is UK hydro feasible?

thevilla

There was a plan for small scale hydro on the Severn in Shrewsbury then FIT was pulled and the scheme was shelved.  We'd better subsidise more north sea gas then....

ispookie666

I did once visit a n SSE (i think) owned pumped hydro facility.  They were explaining how they use the cheap tariffs to pump to the top reservoir and in times of peak demand or when prices spike they can get to full generation in a few seconds.  
There are a few youtube channels discussing home Hydroelectric setups - Most are in North America. I feel, you are likely to fall foul to some sort of planning or conservation regulation for domestic hydroelectric setup.  

silverwhistle

ispookie666 said:

I did once visit a n SSE (i think) owned pumped hydro facility. 

SSE now have another bigger one under development at Coire Glas; plenty of information about it online. It will be a few years before it is ready as it is a major piece of engineering work, but when complete it'll be useful to store the surplus wind there will be with all the new wind farms coming on stream in the next few years.

Reed_Richards

Scotland is still in the UK isn't it?  Plenty of hydro there.  

BUFF

yes, we still are in the UK.
As well as some large hydro dam schemes (& not all pumped storage)  we also have quite a lot of small "run of river " schemes where people chase/chased grants- iirc there are 7 in Glen Etive alone. Unfortunately they do usually involve quite a lot of environmental damage from the installation of access tracks etc.

peter3hg

There are number of small community funded ones near me which are built where there were existing weirs in the river.
They seem to generally produce in the region of 200 MWh a year so 65-70 average households worth of power.
They have flow control to stop the weirs running dry so the environmental damage should be minimal when built at existing weirs.

Rolandtheroadie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanark_Hydro_Electric_Scheme

sevenhills

When it rains, which did used to happen very often, there are millions of gallons of water flowing, from the top of roofs and into rivers towards reservoirs.
There is a lot of potential energy in that rain.