Far from the madding crowd – and the mains

In the second in a series on green energy, Mark Holdstock reports from the North York Moors on how it can offer a practical family solution to a major headache

TO many Bonfield Ghyll is paradise on earth. Seven miles from Helmsley in lovely Bransdale, the farm, owned by the National Trust, is the perfect place for a young family to get away from the crowd. Trudy and David Sanderson keep 400 Swaledale and Cheviot breeding sheep on the

grouse moors which surround their farm.

But there was a down side when they moved here 15 years ago. They were too far from the nearest mains electricity supply to be connected up and had to use a diesel generator. This made life interesting at times.

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"You were watching telly on a night and everything would just go black and we'd just run out of diesel," says David Sanderson.

"If I was away working and I forgot to fill it up before I went, sometimes it used to run out for Trudy. Every day you'd be putting diesel in, or doing something with it."

Trudy recalls the expense. "As well as the diesel that we were having to buy, we also had a lot of repairs. It's like a car that's running lots of hours a day. Eventually the engine wears out or bits need replacing and filters need changing. We got in touch with the electricity board and they were saying it would all have to come underground because of the moor and the National Park.

"They were talking about 100,0000. But that was just someone looking on a map. We'd have had to pay to get a proper survey done to find out the actual cost. It was a non-starter for us to find that sort of money for a rented farm."

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The Sandersons heard about Archimedean Screw technology and went to see one of these small-scale hydro plants working in the Yorkshire Dales. Electricity is generated by water flowing down a gentle slope slowly turning a coarse screw inside a pipe.

The North York Moors National Park Authority had just started a sustainable development fund and the Sandersons' landlord, the National Trust, were keen to tap into that.

Bob Dicker the National Trust's property manager for the area says: "I was interested in looking at a project mainly because there were properties in Bransdale that didn't have any electricity and for one reason or another getting electricity to them wasn't a real option."

The Trust commissioned a survey to find the best solution for Bonfield Ghyll and the Archimedean screw won. "It could produce electricity over the biggest range of conditions," says Trudy Sanderson. "It could produce electricity if you only had a little bit of water in summer and it could produce energy when we had a lot of water in winter. Some machines would have worked better in winter, but not at all in summer."

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The screw turbine was installed for 50,000, funded by the Park's Sustainable Development Fund and by the National Trust. It takes its water from a small beck running through woods next to the farm. The project was managed by MannPower Consulting who have installed several other screw turbines in the region.

The amount of electricity produced is relatively small, under normal conditions about 300-400 watts an hour. A bank of batteries and a device called an inverter ensures that there is 240 volts of alternating current available around the clock.

The only drawback is that the amount of electricity the Sandersons can use at a given time is limited to three kilowatts. David Sanderson concedes that isn't very much. "If Trudy has the washing machine on, she wouldn't be able to put the vacuum cleaner on at the same time because they would put it over the top of the three kilowatts. It doesn't really bother us because we've got used to it. The washing machine generally goes on when we go to bed when nobody else is using electricity."

A really big difference for Trudy has been the availability of household appliances which most people take for granted. "We can run a freezer now. In summer you couldn't run a freezer because you only had your generator running for a few hours, whereas this is a little bit of energy all the time." And when you live seven miles from the nearest shop, a freezer isn't just a luxury, it is a necessity.

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The economics, in comparison with the generator, look good. David Sanderson estimates it's saving them about 2,500 a year in fuel alone. Plus of course it's helping to save the planet.

The Sandersons say that even if grants had not been available they would have considered installing the system themselves. They did pay for the back-up batteries – 500, originally from a fork lift truck and bought on eBay. These are expected to last six years. The Archimedean screw itself has a projected life of about 25 years, although David thinks that this can be extended by replacing some of the parts. The Sandersons have also invested in a photovoltaic panel to help boost their electricity supply in the summer, and also in solar powered water heating tubes on the roof.

Green energy has made a big difference to their lives and their landlord is pretty pleased too. Bob Dicker says the carbon saving of about one tonne a year is also important. "It matters to the National Trust, because if the National Trust aren't doing it, who can be expected to do it?

"We are the largest conservation body in Europe and we should be leading the way."

CW 23/10/10

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