Whites Concrete supplied a pre-cast concrete chamber for an 11-ton Archimedean screw turbine on the banks of the River Esk in Whitby, North Yorkshire, U.K. National engineering and construction company JN Bentley installed the turbine.
The Whites Concrete chamber is constructed using groundwall L-shaped units to house the 2.9-meter-diameter screw turbine. It will operate with up to 4 cumec with a rated capacity of 51.6 kW. It will generate electricity for Esk Energy Limited of Yorkshire, U.K., an industrial provident society set up and managed by local residents. Esk Energy secured funding towards the cost of the project through a community share issue with the necessary planning and license permissions.
The River Esk can send up to 4 tons of water per second down the Archimedean screw, forcing it to rotate while a generator extracts the renewable energy and converts it into electricity.
As principal contractor, JN Bentley designed the scheme, which also included the refurbishment of the existing Environment Agency fish pass and its conversion to a Larinier-type fish pass to help increase the River Esk’s salmon and sea trout stocks.
Source: Whites Concrete