Wensleydale’s community-owned River Bain Hydro Ltd has now exported more than a million kWh (units) to the Northern Powergrid distribution network from a tiny hydro electric power station on the River Bain.
Created using a start-up grant from the National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund, River Bain Hydro is reliably generating a daily average 224 kW over the course of a year – enough to power 28 hours round the year.
The scheme was financed by 190 company shareholders as well as a grant of £50,000 from the National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund. Currently there are 185 shareholders, with about 40 of them living locally.
The Authority has a record of supporting hydro schemes across the National Park. In addition to the turbine at Bainbridge, it has also helped to fund works at Killington and Halton Gill, as well as numerous feasibility and design studies to develop schemes such as at Linton Falls. The support for hydro continued this year when the Authority awarded a £26,000 SDF grant for a turbine on Backstone Gill at Kingsdale Head Farm.
River Bain Hydro Ltd shareholder and project leader Deborah Millward said: “To have generated a gigawatt of electricity is a welcome milestone. To have done so as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases its devastating report is a sobering thought.
“In 2011 when Bainbridge hydro was put in, it was a bit of a trend setter. It was never about making money; it was all about making green energy. There are now two further plants in the Raydale catchment.”
She added: “I am pleased to have been a part of what we now call Net Zero but I think we are all going to have to take much more responsibility for our own personal energy requirements. I have had solar panels for a decade and have just gone fossil fuel free at home, but uptake is going to have to be much, much faster if we are to hand on a safe home and planet to tomorrow’s children.”
Tom Fairey, a director of River Bain Hydro and a retired electrical engineer, said: “When I first became involved with River Bain Hydro about five years ago, the plant had unreliability problems, which meant the output was severely depressed. I found gaining an understanding of the problems both interesting and challenging and with the help of our partners, Durham-based hydro specialists ‘Bluenergy’, the unreliability problems have now been resolved and the generator operates with high reliability whenever water flow in the River Bain permits operation.
“During 2022 water flow in the river permitted operation during 196 days with 100% reliability. Clearly, like all forms of renewable electricity production, River Bain Hydro can never be the sole means of electricity supply to Bainbridge. The important point is that the energy produced makes a valuable contribution to the overall national renewable energy mix.
“In 2022 the plant generated 81,675 kWh which is a daily average of 224 kWh. If the average household uses 8 kWh per day, then that equates to supplying the annual energy requirements of 28 houses in Bainbridge.”
