Burley Hydro Scheme, also known as Greenholme Mill Hydro is a

micro hydro Micro hydro is a type of hydroelectric power that typically produces from 5 kW to 100 kW of electricity using the natural flow of water. Installations below 5 kW are called pico hydro. These installations can provide power to an i ...

electric scheme installed on the

River Wharfe The River Wharfe ( ) is a river in Yorkshire, England originating within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. For much of its middle course it is the county boundary between West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. Its valley is known as Wharfedale. ...

Burley-in-Wharfedale Burley in Wharfedale is a village and (as just Burley) a civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the Wharfedale valley. The village is situated on the A65 road, approximately north-west from Leed ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. The power output of the hydro scheme is 330 kW with an annual output of 1,400 MWh and is the fourth hydro scheme on the river after the opening of similar power plants at Linton near

Grassington Grassington is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. The population of the parish at the 2011 Census was 1,126. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is situated in Wharfedal ...

, and two further downstream from Burley at

Pool-in-Wharfedale Pool-in-Wharfedale or Pool in Wharfedale, usually abbreviated to Pool, is a village and civil parish in the Lower Wharfedale area, north of Leeds city centre, north-east of Bradford, and east of Otley. It is in the City of Leeds metropolit ...

and Garnett Wharfe at

Otley Otley is a market town and civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the population was 13,668 at the 20 ...

. All of these schemes have been located on sites previously used to generate power from the water flow.

History

The site was previously used as a water mill from the 1790s up until 1966, when the mill that worked cotton, Greenholme Mill, went out of business. In 2010, a joint venture between Derwent Hydro Power (DHP) and Trade Link Solutions (TLS), developed a new turbine on the site to generate electricity from the water passing through the old

mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a m ...

. The old mill race was diverted slightly, but cuts a path east of the River Wharfe whilst the main body of the river curves north east and then around to the south in a horseshoe shape. The mill race had silted up and had to be cleared before the new turbine plant could generate power. The plant generates enough electricity to power between 300–340 homes per year, from a flow of per second and saves over of carbon dioxide emissions being pumped into the environment each year. The capacity of the plant is 1,400 MWh per year. At the same time as the turbine house was being built, a fish pass was installed to help with the bio-diversity of the river. The plant at Burley is the fourth scheme of its kind to be built on the River Wharfe after Linton Falls re-opened near Grassington and a similar scheme to the one at Burley opened in 2010 at Pool-in-Wharfedale, though the one at Pool has a third of the generating capacity (100 Kwh). A fourth plant was reconditioned at an old papermill at Garnett Wharfe in

in 2016 as part of an estate build of 240 homes. Garnett Wharfe has a similar power output to Burley. Whereas other schemes have used

Archimedes' screw The Archimedes screw, also known as the Archimedean screw, hydrodynamic screw, water screw or Egyptian screw, is one of the earliest hydraulic machines. Using Archimedes screws as water pumps (Archimedes screw pump (ASP) or screw pump) dates back ...

s in a reverse direction (IE the water flowing through downstream turns the screws and generates electricity), the turbine plant at Burley houses a

Kaplan Turbine The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to ach ...

, which means the water flowing through turns two blades and as it does so, it changes pressure. This requires the inward flow to always have a good head of water. Measures have taken to prevent water loss at Burley even though the turbine will not work when there is a low flow of water such as in a dry summer. The plant was opened by Phillip Davies MP in August 2011 and is designed to feed electricity into the National Grid.

References

External links

co2sense PDF describing the scheme
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burley Hydro Hydroelectric power stations in England Power stations in Yorkshire and the Humber Buildings and structures in West Yorkshire River Wharfe Hydroelectric power stations in Yorkshire and the Humber