Turn for better as huge screw put in place for hydro scheme

A HUGE steel Archimedean Screw was lifted into place on the River Bain yesterday, to signal the start of the first community water hydro scheme in the Yorkshire Dales for nearly a century.

By The Newsroom

Published 24th Mar 2011, 06:00 BST

The eight-and-a-half tonne device is the final piece in the jigsaw for the £450,000 River Bain Hydro scheme, which is run by members of the community in Wensleydale.

When it goes live next month, the 45KWT generator will provide energy for around 45 households and save 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Now national park bosses hope a number of similar schemes will be launched across the area.

Project director Coun Yvonne Peacock said: “We wanted to make use of the river. It is a wonderful natural resource and it is only right that we should be using it.

“We have always been a forward-thinking, self-sufficient community and it is great to be going back to that.

The Yorkshire Dales have a long history of harnessing water power for traditional industries and many villages operated their own electricity schemes in the early 1900s.

An early hydro scheme provided power in Bainbridge from 1912 to as recently as 1950.

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Yorkshire Dales