The Severn and Wye Energy Agency, based in Forest of Dean District, has been working to promote renewables in their area which includes the Wye Valley. The Wye Valley is protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Promotion of renewables in this area will need a very sensitive approach to be compatible with the area s wildlife, landscape character and heritage interests.

In 2001 the Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) became available from the Welsh Assembly; this funding could be accessed by AONB offices for the development of special projects in their area. The Wye Valley AONB office decided to set up a project in the southern area which they manage.

The project, Wye Local Power, seeks to promote the development of locally based renewable resources and has developed, for instance, a programme promoting a do-it-yourself solar power project. In view of the topography of the area there also appeared to be potential for promoting small hydro.

The Wye Valley Local Power scheme is designed to promote community involvement in renewable energy. The project is managed by collaboration between the AONB who have a community initiatives officer and the Severn Wye Energy Agency based in Forest of Dean which provides the renewables expertise.

Initially the Wye Valley AONB commissioned SWEA to carry out a Renewable Energy Scoping Study for the Wye Valley; the findings of this report were presented at a community consultation meeting held in the village of Tintern in April 2002. At the community consultation local residents suggested that a small tributary valley of the Wye, the Angiddy, could rediscover its role as an energy source in former days there were a number of industrial sites in the valley including a former charcoal ironworks.

Wye Local Power endeavoured to keep interested parities up-dated on the projects development including the local community council, the local authority covering the Tintern area and a group of interested local residents.

The feasibility study was professionally prepared by Renewable Heat and Power Ltd. A number of spot flow measurements were obtained from the Environment Agency in Angiddy Brook, and further measurements were taken directly during the on-site survey. Hydraflow modelling software was used to estimate flow variation throughout the year. The consultants compared a traditional solution to construct a crossflow turbine with a solution using a new design of polymer turbine designed by HydroGeneration Ltd., a Devon based consultancy. Such small sites inevitably produce long paybacks in the range 10-30 years.

The design also configured to minimize impact and construction requirements. However, assuming a 50% grant and commitment on behalf of the local community for whom the concept of renewable energy was worth more than the maximum return on money, installing turbines seemed to be viable on these sites providing a crossflow design was used. Such a design would also produce the maximum energy c apture, each site producing around 20MWh per year. In total it would supply the electricity required by about 18 average British homes and avoid 36 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

Involving the local community in the decision-making is a long drawn out process. If in addition the profitability is marginal, this can be a constraint. However the community will often be willing to support a project that is less profitable than required for a project decided on purely business lines. This appears to be the case here, and in this it is modelled on the examples in Somerset and the Prdnik Valley in Poland.

Local authority structures have a particular role here in supporting those who are willing to promote renewable energy and even invest on marginal business terms for environmental or sentimental reasons, but do not have the expertise or human resources to undertake this on their own.

Furthermore if a project is seen to have the community behind it, it helps the political process of obtaining permissions. So a long preparation time may be counteracted by a quicker run through the permit awarding process.

To further investigate the hydro sites, Wye Local Power applied for and obtained two grants to pay for a feasibility study. A grant of 3,300 came from the Enfys programme which supports voluntary action by community groups in Wales, and the second grant of 10,000 came from the UK Government s Clear Skies programme.

Severn Wye Energy Agency
Ben Sang (Renewable Energy Advisor), tel. +44 1594 545366

//2001

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Urban Policy > Urban environment > Environmental sustainability

Renewable energy supplies