Beasley Hydroelectric generating plant and Weir were constructed on the River Barle half a mile downstream from Dulverton c1909-12 by the Dulverton Electric Lighting Company. Its purpose was to supply electricity to Dulverton. It used two Armfield River Turbines housed in a corrugated iron Dutch barn style building. It was requisitioned by the government during the First World War. In 1930 the Dulverton Electric Lighting Company merged with the Exe Valley Electric Company and the original turbines were replaced with a single vertical shafted Escher Wyss turbine. This was used until 1938 when the National Grid reached Dulverton but it was retained as an emergency back up during the Second World War. It was decommissioned in the early 1950s and the Rivers Authority installed fish tanks on the site. These were used until the 1980s.
The current 78Kw Archimedes screw turbine was installed in 2015 by a Stroud based company called Renewables First Ltd. It was completed in November of the same year. The Archimedes screw is located at the side of the river adjacent to a large pool above the weir. The timber turbine house is located above the Archimedes screw. A new fish pass was constructed at the same time. The new turbine generates around 320,00 kWh per year, which is enough to power over 100 homes.
No comments:
Post a Comment