near you i think tony
http://www.millatsonning.com/Hydro.html
"The Mill at Sonning Dinner Theatre announces with pride that on 4 July 2005 it launched the first Hydro Electric Scheme to be powered by the natural resources of The River Thames. The scheme is not only generating enough electric energy for the theatre's numerous lights - arc lights, spotlights, footlights, house lights - but also for the restaurant dining rooms, bars, ovens, as well as backstage corridors, dressing rooms, wardrobe areas, set construction workshops, control box, in addition to its many, many offices. An anticipated excess of this 'green' electricity generated by the theatre will also be passed on for sale to a delighted National Grid.

The 18.5 KW turbine was installed under the supervision of Derwent Hydroelectric Power. About 162,000 units of electricity will be generated each year. Or put more simply 75 tons of carbon dioxide will no longer be poured annually into the world's eco-system.
"

http://www.gssg.org.uk/page/Hydro-electric+Generation
Hydro-electric Generation
GSSG is making steady progress to installing hydro-electric generation on the weir adjacent to the Goring Lock

Remember that all the water that's going down the pipe is no longer going over the weir or whatever - that 'visual' (and no doubt ecological) consideration puts a limit on how much of the potential at any given site can be harnessed.

I've got several wet fields in which are clay field drains, which drain into ditches then to a pond, an outflow then feeds a "stream" which falls 90m before leaving the farm. All this constructed for the draining of the fields. Perfect for micro-hydro, until that is, you talk to the Environment Agency. They require a stream survey both ecological and hydrological, then an abstraction licence for the water to go to the turbine, then a discharge consent to put the water back in after the turbine. Plus planning. No wonder the former hydro electric power station in the village was restored with PV on the roof and no sign of a turbine.
They don't make it easy. Ask anyone who owns an old water mill.

It seems slightly peverse to require an abstraction licence and a discharge consent for an inline turbine. I guess if it's on a side-leat of some sort then it makes some kind of sense. Is this just paperwork or a significant financial consideration? Do they have a sensible justification for this? What are the environmental costs of a water turbine? Reduced oxygenation? Mashed river-life?

I'm a director of Abingdon Hydro and we are proposing the installation of 3 screws next to the weir in Abingdon on the Thames. If all goes according to plan we are hoping to have them installed this time next year, at the moment we are swimming through all the red tape. The EA seem to be softening to the idea of hydro schemes on the Thames now compared to a few years ago, we still need an abstraction license, which is almost in the bag now, and support for the scheme from local authorities and the public is very encouraging. We were featured on BBC Oxford news last week so were getting some publicity now which should help to push this forward.

http://www.abingdonhydro.co.uk/

This project is just down the road from me on the river Derwent.
howshammill.ning.com

Not sure the EA public policy announcements actually mean anything. I live near dozens of old water mills and every one has been given discouragement for micro hydro.
In my case, it's not even a stream it's an outflow from my field drains - I could plough them up tomorrow that'll cause a bigger disruption to the flow than a 3kW turbine the size of a football. I appreciate that due regard has to be given to the streams and rivers of our nation but common sense, please. Lets face it -the ecological survey will indicate that the header pond may be a suitable habitat for Great Crested Newts, in which case that'll mean more surveys, more expense - so another perfectly sensible carbon reduction scheme will never see the light of day.
Sorry but red tape has gone mad.

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: James Norton</cite><blockquote><cite>Posted By: buckyp</cite>we are swimming through all the red tape.</blockquote>
...little hydro-generation joke there...?<img title="" alt="" src="/forum114/extensions/Vanillacons/smilies/standard/wink.gif"></img>

J</blockquote>

I hadn't noticed that! Probably due to all the people that are swimming in the Thames at the moment due to a certain Mr Walliams' infuence!

Windy lamb - I might be missing something here but do the EA actually have authority over the outfall of land drains before they leave your land? If as you say you can plough them up without implications and if land drains can be installed or modified without EA involvement then surely the outfall could be modified (with a 3kW turbine the size of a football) as part of general maintenance - How often does your outfall ditch (which must be classed as a drainage ditch not a stream) get inspected?
If rain water on your own land comes under EA control where does this put rain water harvesting?
Has the red tape got that bad since I left the UK. I thought it was bad here!
Peter

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: wookey</cite>buckyp - your website contains nothing but a big white empty square on a black background (and a little text in the corner saying I can build free (but crappy) websites with something called 'moonfruit'.

Please don't make websites that only work with one proprietary tool from one vendor. This is supposed to be the internet, built using standards so _anyone_ can see what you published using many browsers on many different machines of different architectures. Adobe seem to have made everyone forget that.

At the very least test your site with free tools and check it works, or provide an alternative way in (assuming there is something non-flash to see in there somewhere).</blockquote>

I've just checked the website and everything is as it should be, I don't know what the problem is your end but nobody has ever had any problems with it before!

Posted By: DamonHD
Note that you won't get many complaints from people who haven't the energy or can't see a 'Contact Us' link.

Yes. I block flash because it's a resource hog that adds nothing to most sites; if I come across a site that's so badly designed that you can't see anything on the home page I just ignore that site.

Not worth taking the trouble to complain as the originator will either be completely unaware of the issue and be unable to do anything about it or so astonished that someone doesn't want to use flash that they ignore the complaint anyway.

Blank for me too, for the reasons already given. I, like many, many others, block javascript and flash by default, having learned the hard way that they can cause mayhem in the hands of those with a malicious turn of mind.

I too, would assume that a web site was up to no good if it tried to do things like autorun video, quite apart from the fact that playing music or video automatically from the front page of any website has to be one of the dumbest ideas ever. People in offices, or even browsing on a laptop in front of the TV, are not going to be impressed by having audio suddenly starting up from the home page of a site.