To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what evaluation his Department has carried out of the potential energy generation from the River Severn from (a) incorporating hydroelectric generating equipment at the five existing weirs between Stourport and Gloucester and (b) building five variable height weirs with hydroelectric generating equipment between Bridgnorth and Stourport. (75493)

In 1987 the then Department of Energy commissioned the University of Salford to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the economic potential for small-scale hydroelectric generation throughout the UK.

The scope of the study extended to sites with installed capacities in the range 25 kW to 5 MW. Further limiting conditions were to disregard sites with hydraulic heads of less than two metres, with existing civil works, or less than three metres with no existing civil works.

The comprehensive results of the study were published in the report “Small Scale Hydroelectricity Generation Potential in the UK” ETSU-SSH-4063 (parts 1-3) a copy of which is available in the Library of the House.