Revised plans have been submitted to the Vale of White Horse for the Abingdon Hydro, the community funded project to generate electricity from the River Thames in Abingdon.
Revised plans have been resubmitted because, after the detailed design, the generator house will need to be larger than the original design.
Potential contractors will also need easy access to the site, and so a temporary road from Audlett Drive, and a temporary bridge, (alongside the current footbridge), have been sketched in as part of the plans.
You can see the plans at at P15/V2335/FUL
The government have given until September 2016, for projects with a long lead time like this one, to be generating electricity to get the enhanced ‘feed in tariff’ for generating electricity. Any later and the project’s financial viability would be in question.
Construction is expected to take 6-8 months. Time is now of the essence for these revised plans.
Which begs the question “how the hell were this bunch of amatuers allowed let loose with chain saws and axe’s and decimate the bank side of this beautiful part of the river if they have’nt got full planning? What’s.more if the deadline for coley ion in order to qualify for enhancements is set just twelve months away and planning usually is a three month process along with work estates 6 to 8 months then best knock the project on the head now and give the investors their money back before its all spent on a dead duck !
Oops coley oim should have been completion,
This is so wrong. No work should have been started on public/council land without full planning permission and full funding (I don’t believe the money has been raised to pay for this!).
Please look at the planning application and make your own mind up as to whether this is worth the permanent change to the area and the upheaval to the surrounding area whilst construction takes place. Who will it benefit?
Then actually bother to object to the planning (if that’s your view) rather than moaning about it when it’s too late!
We don’t want what Osney seem to have ended up with – a rusting, unfinished project that looks an eyesore due to lack of funds to complete.
I can’t believe at how hard it has been for these chaps to get this far. Frankly, it should be government policy that every weir with a drop of 3ft or more should have a turbine on it.
Indeed Sarah but the bare facts suggest this is not going to happen ? Take a look at the E A’s comments on their planning application (link provided in feature) it stays very clearly that an application for the permission necessary to install temporary traffic management is a minimum of 12 weeks, the target date for planning application to be considered is the end of November, assuming it goes through they then have to wait a min of 12 weeks for the traffic system approval, that will take them till March at the earliest which leaves them less than 7 months to complete the project, which will be impossible, especially if we have a bad winter,
Phew, glad I didn’t invest in this after all, it sounds like a bottomless pit!
I completely agree with Captainkaos2 about the early tree cutting.
As for the hydro project itself, I think we’d all love to live on renewable energy, but not only are the costs per installed watt massive, but objectionally they will end up adding to my electricity bill.
In my mind there is no doubt that if the project gets built it will be a noisy eyesore. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen.
I agree Esromac, problem is loads of local people have poured thousands and thousands into this project by way of buying shares and unless it ceases now they risk loosing their investments !
Indeed, Captainkaos2, but that wasn’t my point. The Government subsidy by way of feed in tariffs is clearly not helping the whole project, and its understanding and commitment to renewables is questionable, and can be changed on a whim (e.g. solar). The hydro scheme on balance appears low impact, and vegetation and trees (especially willow) can quickly re-establish and recover. How many residents of Abingdon remember the weir before the current construction was built? The riverscape adapts and changes to our needs. I suspect many objected to the building of the weir all those years ago. It is certainly true that water power such as this will generate a comparatively small amount of electricity, but if it helps reduce that which we will now have to purchase from nuclear power stations from overseas, this can only be a good thing for the country.
Better we build our own nuclear power stations, become energy self-sufficient, and just get on with it.
I agree with Sarah…I remember a couple years ago or so that it was on the news and a big who-ha about Energy, and Cli-mate change, and Glow-ball warming….why are so many hoops having to be jumped through, rather than energy being drawn from every river drop as the default, with a year to counter it….rather than the way round it is now?
Perhaps it isn’t all such an issue now?
Sorry, Sarah, but the amount of electricity would hardly be a drop in the ocean. And why might it me wrong to use nuclear energy whether from the UK or from abroad (France)??
Sorry, Esromac–nuclear power appears to have a high environmental impact. There really is no true, long-term solution to the disposal of high level nuclear waste. And in terms of sustainability, Fukushima, Chernobyl and Windscale (sorry, Sellafield) might be cases in point. Moreover, purchasing from overseas parastatal energy companies hardly helps the UK balance of payments.
Don’t worry everyone Daves just done a deal with the Chinese, they’re going to build, run and own our next generation nuclear power stations ! Hasn’t our spiralling energy costs tought him anything about overseas companies controlling our utilities ?