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Retro-Hydro in Ireland

  • 20-06-2008 12:37pm
    #1
    The Saint
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,932 ✭✭✭


    I just reading about the Ardnacrusha hydro station wondering about current hydro power stations in Ireland in general. It seems that most were built in the 1920's or 40s'. I have found the current output from these stations from the ESB site.

    Liffey 38 MW
    Ardnacrusha 86 MW
    Erne 65 MW
    Clady 4 MW
    Lee 27 MW

    I was just wondering whether output could be increased in these stations by retrofitting them (assuming this hasn't already been done) or just rebuilding the power stations themselves to modern standards. The main infrastructure would already be there such as canals in the case of Ardnacrusha so would therefore not cause an increased ecological impact.

    Would it be worth while to do this? How much could capacity be increased by? Would it be economically viable? I'm sure people don't know the answers to these questions but it seems like it might be worth a look.


Comments

  • #2
    air
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,834 ✭✭✭air


    Already been done (in the case of Ardnacrusha anyway to the best of my knowledge), also they all had a state of the art distributed control system installed about 4 years ago so all in I'd say they're making the most of them.


  • #3
    bonkey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,443 ✭✭✭✭bonkey


    air wrote: »
    Already been done (in the case of Ardnacrusha anyway to the best of my knowledge),

    Yeah. Ardna had a more-or-less-complete overhaul only a handful of years ago.


  • #4
    Gurgle
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,064 ✭✭✭Gurgle


    Here are all the ESB's power stations & capacities:
    Station Capacity(in Megawatts) Fuel Type
    West Offaly Power 150 Peat
    Lough Ree Power 100 Peat
    Turlough Hill 292 Hydro (Pump Storage)
    Liffey 38 Hydro
    Ardnacrusha 86 Hydro
    Erne 65 Hydro
    Clady 4 hydro
    Lee 27 Hydro
    Moneypoint 915 Coal
    Tarbert 620 Oil
    Great Island 240 Oil
    Aghada 525 Gas
    Poolbeg 1,020 Oil and Gas
    North Wall 266 Oil and Gas
    Marina 115 Gas

    So altogether 512MW is hydro-generated of the total 4.46GW, or 11%.

    Given our landscape, rainfall and abundance of rivers we must be only using a tiny percentage of available hydro. But I've heard no plans to build more.


  • #5
    bonkey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,443 ✭✭✭✭bonkey


    Gurgle wrote: »
    Given our landscape, rainfall and abundance of rivers we must be only using a tiny percentage of available hydro. But I've heard no plans to build more.

    Have you considered that there are no plans to build more because your base assumption is wrong - that we are, in fact, using most, if not all, of the available, practical hydro capability.

    Hydro requires a volume of water, traversing a sufficient vertical distance in a short-enough horizontal distance to make it practical to build a "drop" - typically in the form of a dam. Additionally, you typically need a reservoir capacity behind your dam, for a variety of reasons. A combination of various factors will typically determine the size of reservoir needed...but you typically need a mid-to-large-sized lake - either manmade or natural.

    As far as I am aware, there is nowhere in Ireland meeting the necessary criteria where there isn't already a hydro station. Effectively, the country is too flat.


  • #6
    Belfast
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,355 ✭✭✭Belfast


    Details of Ireland's Renewable Energy Generating Plant
    Ireland's current stock of renewable energy plant consists mainly of a mixture of large
    and small scale hydro schemes, some 49 wind energy stations and 11 biomass fuelled plant.
    A summary of the capacities installed to date (June 2005) is outlined in the table below

    the below link open as an Adobe Acrobat Document
    http://www.sei.ie/getFile.asp?FC_ID=2426&docID=363


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  • #7
    gerky
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,407 ✭✭✭gerky


    bonkey wrote: »
    As far as I am aware, there is nowhere in Ireland meeting the necessary criteria where there isn't already a hydro station. Effectively, the country is too flat.

    Afaik bonkey is right, most areas just aren't suitable and most if not all areas that do match the criteria are already in use.


  • #8
    probe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,055 ✭✭✭probe


    Belfast wrote: »
    Details of Ireland's Renewable Energy Generating Plant
    Ireland's current stock of renewable energy plant consists mainly of a mixture of large
    and small scale hydro schemes, some 49 wind energy stations and 11 biomass fuelled plant.
    A summary of the capacities installed to date (June 2005) is outlined in the table below

    the below link open as an Adobe Acrobat Document
    http://www.sei.ie/getFile.asp?FC_ID=2426&docID=363

    Interesting if out of date list of generating assets, with none of the URLs in the PDF working, and tables in Comic font! SEI - a government agency run by comedians.... :-(

    .probe


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