A MASSIVE hydro-power station on the Aire & Calder Navigation at present being built could be generating power by the end of the month.
The massive £5.3 millions scheme is one of two such schemes at weirs on the Aire & Calder Navigation, with this one at Kirkthorpe (pictured) and a further one being built at Brotherton Weir, Alan Tilbury tells us.
Used time and time again
It is accepted that such power created by water is the 'greenest', as the same water can be used time and time again as it flows towards the sea, and all that is seen are the tops of the generators protruding a few feet above the water line, unlike the monstrous towers needed for wind farms.
Should the Kirthorpe begin generating before Christmas, it will have been built on time, with the estimation that it will create power for 800 households.
Bigger
The further hydro-power generation at Brotherton Weir is an even bigger scheme at a cost of £6.5 millions, creating power for even more homes, and as a local councillor pointed out—'By ensuring that more renewable energy is available we can help to protect the local environment and provide reliable, clean energy for future generations'.
Such power stations constructed at weirs on navigable rivers have a restriction on how low the water level is allowed to drop, so as to maintain navigation.