Quarry company Forest Pennant in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, have switched on their micro hydro generation turbine at their stone processing works.

Natural Stone Specialist has been tracking the development over the past four years. It has taken longer to bring the hydrogeneration plant to fruition than had been hoped due to planning issues, including the need to create an eel ladder to protect the local population of the fish.

In the picturesque setting of Cannop Ponds, just metres from the company’s extensive stoneworks, the purpose-built turbine house converts the natural power provided by the network of ponds created by 18th century steel workers to power their mills. It homes both the control system and hydro turbine equipment supplied and installed by world leading German turbine manufacturers Ossberger.

Nick Horton, Forest Pennant Managing Director, enjoyed the euphoria of the long awaited switch on. “Today is the result of more than four years of hard work, research, telephone calls and bureaucracy.

“Planned for a December 2010 switch on, mother nature intervened and the snow unfortunately delayed us by three or four weeks. Following some logistical re-jigs and the return of the Ossberger installation team on 17th January, we were up and running within 24 hours.

“With a full 12kW of generation at the point of switch on it really is a great feeling, especially after all our efforts.”

“Over the next few months we will be continuing to reap and certify the rewards of the installation, including measurement of our carbon footprint and applying for BREEAM certification.

“In the spring we will also be holding an official launch ceremony as a thank you and reception for key partners and industry bodies.”

Forest Pennant feed the electricity into the National Grid, for which they are paid through the Feed In Tariff (FIT) scheme. Latest figures from DECC, the Department of Energy and Climate, released in January, showed that by the end of last year there were 68MW of capacity across 18,401 installations being produced by micro-generation in the FIT scheme, of which 7,000 (24MW) had joined in the final quarter of the year.