Eco Evolution Blog

Eco Evolution appointed agents in Ireland for Mann Power Consulting Ltd., the Archimedean Screw hydro turbine specialists in the UK. Mann Power are the sole UK authorised dealer for the Rehart range of Archimedean Screws manufactured in Germany.

A £1MILLION green scheme to turn Totnes Weir into a mini power station will be the biggest hydro-electric project of its kind in Europe.

The scheme — which could be in action powering up King Edward VI Community College by the beginning of 2012 — involves installing a four metre diameter Archimedean screw turbine to fill the 20-metre long sluice at one end of the centuries old town weir.

There are already 15 similar water-powered turbines operating in the UK and another 100 across Europe.

But the Totnes turbine’s size and its 200 kilowatt output would make it the biggest in Europe so far, revealed Dave Mann, the boss of Yorkshire company Mannpower.

 It would harness the power of the 13 tonnes a second of water that pours over the weir which would then be used to provide electricity for the classrooms of more than 1,800 pupils at what is one of the largest schools in Devon.

“We have calculated that it will produce as much power as the school uses,” Mr Mann explained as he outlined the project at a public meeting at the college.

A similar, but slightly smaller screw, was installed at the River Dart Country Park by Mr Mann’s company and has been powering the park successfully for the past three years.

A consortium of local investors, called the Dart Renewable Partnership, has already bought the weir from one-time Autotrader boss Malcolm Barrett for £75,000.

The deal included land next to the weir where there are proposals to build a small classroom complex which would be used as part of a KEVICC educational project involving power generation and the river environment.

Mr Mann aims to submit a planning application for the project next month and begin construction in July next year and the turbine could be producing power for the school and the national grid by early 2012.

Mannpower has already held talks with fishing organisations, owners of waterside properties, the Environment Agency and KEVICC.

Around 20 members of the public, local councillors and representatives of interested group were at a public exhibition outlining the project at KEVICC’s Ariel Centre.

The scheme also involves building a fish ladder up the weir for salmon and trout which spawn in the upper reaches of the Dart — and installing underwater cameras and fish counters to monitor the fish population.

Fish expert Peter Kibel explained that the current fish ladder was too long and too difficult for smaller fish, leaving them easy prey for seals which swim up river to take advantage of salmon and trout trapped in the weir.

It is also planned to remove the diagonal concrete ledge across the weir built as another aid for fish.

That will stop the force of the water being directed to one side of the river which has eroded the bank by 20ft in the past two decades.

This will allow water to pour over the weir in a more direct route and eventually wash away the mud island downstream at low tide.

Source:  http://www.mannpower-hydro.co.uk/news.php

Eco Evolution are resellers and installers of the Evance R9000 Wind Turbine in the Leinster region.

Evance, a leader in the manufacture of small wind turbines, is the first company to have completed the Mircogeneration Certification Scheme(MCS) Phase 2 requirements when the MCS Transition Arrangements document was issued on 28^th April 2010. The MCS gives consumers the guarantee that certified microgeneration products and the installers of those products have conformed to a rigorous set of standards.

Eco Evolution are  pleased to announce that the Evance R9000 5kW wind turbine has completed all tests and has been awarded full Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) accreditation. This accreditation is a formal recognition of the durability, reliability, safety and overall performance of the R9000, which provides customers with confidence in the turbine, as well as entitlement to income from Feed-in Tariffs.

Evance Press Release  20th July 2010:

Evance, a leader in the manufacture of small wind turbines, is pleased to announce that its R9000 5kW wind turbine has completed all tests and awarded full Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) accreditation.

Project: Proposed leisure centre and swimming pool.

To whom it may concern,

I wish to confirm that at planning and design stages of the above project I requested Frank and Mary Gethings of Eco Evolution to design the most environmentally friendly and energy solution for the running of the proposed leisure centre. I asked that all of the essential heating, water heating and air conditioning services be designed with the most environmentally friendly systems.

Within a couple of days of talking with Mary, Frank visited my offices and educated me on the best approach. Frank and Mary have a very friendly and approachable manner which makes them very easy to deal with.

I agreed to run with his excellent advice and in a matter of days Frank had a full eco-friendly solution for what is by no means a simple building to service. The solution included some very innovative thinking with regard to the heating of the pool, an array of solar panels and the use of a heat pump system. My client was equally impressd with the energy solutions and I submitted all of Eco Evolutions details as part of the planning application.

Frank and Mary form an excellent team and provide excellent advice and most importantly provide the information efficiently and on time. The products which they can provide are without doubt the best on the market and it is clear that a lot of time and effort is spent by the company in researching and ensuring they have the best products at their disposal.

I have no doubt that given the notable shifts in attitude towards the use of these products, coupled with the fact they are now reasonably priced, that Eco Evolution is a company that will go from strength to strength in the coming years.

I would strongly recommend them for all your ‘eco’ needs.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Molloy, Architect

Molloy Architecture and Design Studio, McCurtain St., Gorey, Co. Wexford.

Press Release 10th June 2010

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) operates the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in Ireland. Over 100 major industrial and institutional sites in Ireland are covered by the Scheme (over 12,000 sites in the EU as a whole).  These include power generation, other combustion, cement, lime, glass and ceramic plants and oil refining. Also included are large companies in areas such as food & drink, pharmaceuticals and semi-conductors. Each company must record their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions every year onto the National Emissions Trading Registry which is an on-line web-based system which tracks GHG emissions and records allowance holdings.

The Environmental Protection Agency has now made information from Ireland’s National Emission Trading Registry publicly available in line with the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.

This publicly available information covers:

• Account holders authorised to hold Kyoto units in an account on Ireland’s National Emission Trading Registry.
• Unit holdings by account type (e.g. Party account or entity account).

To view this information please click on the Publicly Accessible Information link on the homepage of Ireland’s National Emission Trading Registry.

Further information on accounts in Ireland’s National Emissions Trading Registry (including annual emissions data for each installation) can be found on the website of the EU’s Community Independent Transaction Log (CITL).

Find out more information on the operation of the Emissions Trading Scheme in Ireland.

Source: http://www.epa.ie/news/pr/2010/name,28658,en.html