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Hydropower in Windsor
23/03/2010

South East Power Engineering Limited (SPEL), a UK based hydropower development company, has applied for a licence to develop a hydroelectric scheme at Romney Weir, between Windsor and Eton in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. 

Specialising in creative and cost effective solutions to difficult hydropower challenges, SEPL is backed by Summit Asset Management, as part of our strategy to invest in and and support cleantech power generation.

Planning permission for the project was originally granted for Npower renewables, the renewable energy producing subsidiary of RWE Innogy (UK) Limited. Npower, which had been working with SPEL, withdrew from the scheme in February 2009.

The revised project will utilise two hydrodynamic “Archimedes” screw turbines positioned in two bays of the weir. Construction is expected to commence in 2011, with commencement of operation also planned for the same year. It is planned to generate around 1.4m kilowatt-hours of clean electricity each year, enough to meet the needs of 300 households.

The scheme will contribute towards the UK Government’s target of achieving 15% of UK electricity needs from renewable energy sources by 2015.

David DeChambeau of SPEL, who introduced the new technology which makes the project commercially viable said: “the Archimedes screw style water pump has been in use for many centuries, dating as far back as 700BC when there is evidence of it’s use in Mesopotamia.

Currently the Archimedes screw pump is used for flood control by the Environment Agency and for moving effluent through sewage treatment plants.

The development of the Archimedes screw pump as a hydropower generation system is a logical extension to the pumping concepts. Its reverse approach is simple and extremely efficient . Instead of pumping water to a higher level, water is allowed to flow in the opposite direction from the high water side of the weir, down to the lower level of the weir pool.

The weight of the water flowing down the system slowly rotates the screw, enabling the screw to extract up to 90% of the flowing waters energy in the process. This powerful rotational energy is then converted to completely carbon free electricity”.