First community hydro energy co-op
Thursday, December 04, 2008
A scheme in Derbyshire has become the first to set up community funded hydro electricity at Torr Weir on the River Goyt in New Mills. Torrs Hydro is now up and running as a community co-op and revenue will help regenerate the community. It was set up with a grant from the Co-operative Fund and the Co-op Group also supported by buying the energy to power its nearby store, as the Guardian reported yesterday, to create the first hydro-powered supermarket in the country. There are now plans for another scheme in Settle, Yorkshire, offering green shares for Christmas.
Following the success of Baywind and its sister projects, it's great to see the model applied to other energy sources. These mini hydro plants can be sited in more urban areas than wind farms, so visible in the communities they serve. They should hopefully be more acceptable to local people, and to Tory councils too who seem to block progressive energy schemes at every turn. Localised energy production can be more efficient and, coupled with a distributed energy network, could really change the way we heat and power our homes. As SERA has reported, we need to restructure the energy market and update our regulatory and planning laws to make these schemes even more viable.
Labels: Co-operative Group, co-operatives, Derbyshire, energy, SERA
