All approvals received

Whalley Hydro is a social enterprise

Whalley Hydro is a social enterprise which is a business: with a social purpose or purposes. achieving the social purpose(s) by trading in the marketplace. holding assets and wealth in trust for community benefit. democratically involving members of its constituency in the governance of the organisation. accountable to a defined constituency and to the wider community as an independent organisation. Whalley Hydro’s goals include reducing carbon emissions, assisting in adaptation to low carbon living and increasing energy security in Whalley and ...

600 years of water power in Whalley

The weir is an important part of Whalley’s conservation area. Whalley Hydro has undertaken to maintain it in order to continue its historic use in harnessing the power of the river. The Cistercian monks who built the weir on the River Calder at Whalley 600 years ago were noted for their hydraulic engineering. They diverted water from the weir down the still existing mill race for the newly built abbey. In 1837 this mill race was ...

Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS)

The Enterprise Investment Scheme is an HM Revenue & Customs scheme which enables tax relief to investors of 30% of the cost of the shares. It is designed to help small startups like ours to raise finance. Shareholders must pay enough tax to cover the reliefs and retain their investments for three years to benefit from the tax reliefs. Investors can choose to treat their subscription for EIS shares as if made in the previous ...

Whalley Flood Committee

Whalley Hydro director Tim Ashworth attended a meeting of the Calder Vale representatives of Whalley Flood Committee Saturday 15th September. The Flood Committee was formed after the June flood when the River Calder overtopped its banks and caused extensive damage to properties in the village. The meeting gave an opportunity to explain the hydro project in some detail and to reassure those present that the scheme cannot in any way increase the threat of flooding in ...

What local support is there?

Local support for the scheme has been overwhelmingly positive. There is widespread understanding of the need for sources of renewable energy to increase local resilience. More detail in the FAQ section.    

Fish pass approved

Our fish pass application has now been approved by the Environment Agency. This will help salmon and trout get past the weir as they migrate to their breeding areas upstream. The river used to be completely dead from industrial pollution but has been cleaned up in recent years. Fish are now getting higher up the river to the whole of the Calder Basin (See Calder Basin map) and the fish pass ...

Feed-in Tariff for hydro unchanged

The government recently announced that the Feed-in Tariff for hydro schemes like Whalley Hydro is virtually unchanged. This is good news for Whalley Hydro as it removes the uncertainty around the financial returns shareholders can expect. There has been much publicity for the drop in FiTs for solar pv installations but the government has recognised that hydro schemes have a much longer lead in time so their FiTs need to be maintained.