Monks did it 700 years ago, Joan's family did in the 20s, so can we harness the power of the Dee?
Post categories: Llangollen,Ìýenvironment,Ìýgoodnews
| 08:46 UK time, Thursday, 26 November 2009
You can't visit Llangollen without taking a few minutes to stand and admire the power of the Dee as it crashes over the rocks and beneath the stone bridge.
how - for the last two years - people have been working behind the scenes to see if that power could be harnessed to provide electricity for the town.
It makes sense, don't you think?
But it's not the first time the Dee has been put to use. The monks of nearby Vallé Crucis Abbey got there first - about 700 years ago, says Silas Jones from rural development group .
Silas told the there were water mills up and down the Dee generating power to begin the Industrial Revolution before coal, steam and oil.
[Can anyone shed more light on these old mills and does anything remain today?]
So far, Peter Carol, who runs watersports business Pro Adventure has spent his own cash along with grant support from public bodies for feasibility studies which all take time and so it could still be 10 years before the idea becomes a reality.
And this, it seems, is what prompted contributor CM Millman to overnight with these comments:
"My home is sited on a small local river in a village in Flintshire and is the site of the original electrical supply for the village which was generated by the river.
"My local electrician confirms that I could replicate this system for my own use and that of neighbours. So why don't I do it you ask:
- The capital cost is, for me expensive
- I have to obtain permission from the river's authority
- Red tape associated with creating power and leaving the grid is almost impenetrable
"So the government want us all to go green - only on their terms and profit surely!"
Over to you...
CM Millman may be interested to know that one tiny community, the former Ddol Ucha, near Mold, used to generate their own power in the 1920s, as Joan Tapper remembered when she took part in one of our former Then & Now film projects a couple of years back.
This photo [below] shows the water that was harnessed and in her film she explains how it was put to use.
Said Joan: "My father made the pond in 1920. He wanted to generate electricity to the home, the farm and buildings and we also gave the electricity to the local Ddol Chapel for their use. We used to saw wood and we used to grind corn and it never broke down."
91Èȱ¬ Wales is currently running a looking at how we're tackling the challenge of climate change in Wales.
