A new low head hydro project is being built on the River Calder at Kirkthorpe, four miles east of Wakefield in West Yorkshire. Work on the project has started after Wakefield Council granted permission to Kirkthorpe Hydropower Ltd, a subsidiary of Barn Energy, to build and operate the scheme. When open later this year (2016), it will generate enough electricity to power 800 homes and will be Yorkshire’s largest-ever low head hydro-electric project.
The £5.3m hydropower scheme will use the flow of the River Calder to power a single 500kW axial turbine that will generate around 2.3million units of carbon-free electricity per year, equivalent to the consumption of 800 households. It will run 24 hours a day for 10-11 months of the year, for at least 100 years.

The Kirkthorpe project is Barn Energy’s second project in Yorkshire. Its first, which is situated on the River Don at Thrybergh near Rotherham, entered service in October of last year (2015) and is generating electricity at full capacity. In addition, Thrybergh’s fish passage has resulted in Atlantic salmon being seen upstream at Aldwarke Weir on the eastern edge of Rotherham for the first time in 150 years.

Mark Simon, Chief Executive of Barn Energy and Yorkshire Hydropower Ltd said: “Yorkshire is leading the way with low-head hydro power in this country, and helping to drive a new wave of investment into the country’s infrastructure. Thrybergh and now Kirkthorpe, and the other river hydro schemes that we hope will follow, offer baseload electricity and deliver clean energy highly efficiently into the local grid. They are very long-term sources of clean electricity. With the right tariff structure and finance in place, we can build more and larger hydro projects across the North of England, making it a true Northern Powerhouse.

“We wish to build our next hydro scheme at the Brotherton Weir on the River Aire near Knottingley and close to the landmark Ferrybridge coal-fired power station; getting it built is however dependent on our efforts to secure grant or low-cost finance for the £6.5m project.”

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