"trainfinder22" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Here in New York we have done quite well with power produced by our >canal system.Most of the power is produced at locks. However our canal >is about 20 feet deep and 70 feet wide and in some places as much as 60 >feet of water is behind the lock walls so there is plenty of force >there to push turbines. Wih british canals being smaller is there such >a thing as Mini-Hydro Power to Generate Electricity....And by the way >the USA Exports Coal to Great Britain..I know because See the trains go >thru onthe way to the port.
This is common on the larger waterways in mainland Europe (e.g. the Canal du Centre and the Brussels-Charleroi Canal in Belgium). However, I believe the power is generated only when the lock is filled or emptied, not constantly via bywashes (unless there is a significant natural, i.e. not pumped, supply of water to the upper pound, I guess). No reason not to do it for domestic purposes using a bywash on a river navigation IMHO, though, as long as you don't try to take more flow from the upper pound than the river is putting into it (i.e. would otherwise go over the weir). The small-capacity plant required is relatively inexpensive. The large (two-wheel overshot) water mill near my mooring, now demolished, used to be of about 70 kW power, I believe, but it used the flow of a dammed (and quite small) tributary of the Lea not that of the river itself, and a head of about 6 m. I don't know, though, how many hours/year it ran. Two neighbouring and foresight-challenged houseowners have filled in lengths of the leat (between the pond and the mill site) where it runs through their properties, to provide lawn (on the north side of their houses). If it were still usable, they could turn their grid connection(s) into a profit-making venture. Although there is a rumour that the current owner of the mill site is considering just that, as he (may) have acquired the miller's rights with the property. Perhaps his neighbours had better get their shovels ready. Apparently, a number of water mills are now being used for this, and the restoration of quite a few more is under consideration for the same purpose. Adrian Adrian Stott 07956-299966
