Powered By Rock – Week 6
THE POWER OF WATER
Lecture notes – 2014_PoweredbyRock_lect6_hydro_SML (PowerPoint).
Harnessing hydroelectric power (DECC website information).
Micro-scale run-of-river projects “take off in the UK” (news article from 2011).
Cruachan
Scotland’s power mountain (article on The Register).
The Hollow Mountain (information film from 1966).
Visit Cruachan (official website).
Cruachan site (Scottish Power summary).
Dinorwig, North Wales
The Electric Mountain (official website)
Glendoe, Scotland
Began operating late 2008, closed in August 2009 due to rock fall, reopened in 2012 (article on Hydroworld).
Glendoe has the biggest head in the UK, a 600m drop from reservoir to turbine (SSE project website).
Deep beneath the Highlands (British Geological Survey poster about Glendoe).
Seismic monitoring of reservoir inundation at Glendoe (BGS research)
Induced seismicity
Earthquakes triggered by dams (article on International Rivers).
80,000 people killed by reservoir-induced earthquake in Sichuan, China.
Tidal & Wave Power:
“The UK is currently the undisputed global leader in marine energy, with more wave and tidal stream devices installed than the rest of the world combined,” according to Renewable UK.
The Pentland Firth could provide 1.9 GW of tidal energy, or 43% of Scotland’s electricity consumption (BBC article).
4.2 GW of power could be extracted, but challenges of efficiency are likely to reduce this figure, according to Draper et al. (2014).
The Severn Barrage (from the Severn Estuary Partnership).
Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay (project website).
The UK Wave & Tidal Knowledge Network (run by The Crown Estate)
