Fish may return thanks to mill turbine scheme
FISH could return to a section of the River Goyt for the first time in more than 200 years following the installation of a new water turbine.
The turbine at Stringer’s Weir in Stockport will provide electricity for Pear Mill, a Grade-II listed building constructed in 1913.
It will provide safe upstream and downstream migration for fish for the first time since 1791.
In the 1700s underground water tunnels were built all over the borough to provide a steady water supply to the mills. The largest of these was Stringer’s Tunnel, built together with Stringer’s Weir by John Stringer in the late 1700s.
When Pear Mill was built, George Saxon 5000hp twin Manhattan Compound steam engines were powered using water from the weir built by Stringer 120 years earlier.
Now, with the weir still holding strong, a 100kW Archimedean Screw has been installed by Hallidays Hydropower for the mill and the £170,000 scheme is due to be completed in May this year.
Hallidays Hydropower have worked closely with the Environment Agency, Stockport council and local anglers and have used a fish-friendly turbine as well as installing a Larinar Fish Pass alongside it.
The turbine will produce 281Mwh of electricity each year, 95 per cent of which will be used by Pear Mill, saving well over 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year.
Project engineer Henry Reily-Collins said: “This has been our most challenging project yet.
“Prior to our involvement this hydro scheme had a long history of development attempts by other companies.
“Getting the engineering to work and the finances to stack up was no mean feat. However, Hallidays Hydropower excel at value engineering and efficient design and have managed to deliver another renewable energy generation, to time and within budget and as sympathetic to the local environment as possible.”
The turbine, which has been transported to Stockport from Italy, is 3.5m wide and over 8m long. The generator housing has been designed to tie in with Pear Mill, using red and terracotta bricks.