Power paddle

A hydro generator could be placed at the bottom of a restriction in the river

Many years ago I used to canoe on the river Severn in Bridgnorth Shropshire. One of the first things you learn is don’t put your paddle in too deep because the deeper you go the faster the current is flowing (tearing the paddle from your grip). During these outings we went to a natural constriction of the river where the entire width of the river is forced to flow through about a 3 metre gap forcing all that water to go much lower to enable the volume of water to flow.

It was from thinking of this, if a hydro generator was to be placed at the bottom of such a restriction the river this could drive quite a powerful generator.

From these initial thoughts I went on to think that a number of these could be put on the same river with little detriment to the environment. I went on to think that if these were sited near to towns especially those with bridges, that the design of these structures (using a venturi action), debris such as trees could be made to collect in times of floods at this point easing or even eliminating the dangerous and costly need to remove this from bridges and river structures downstream.

I hope that someone may take this idea on board.

Graham Gittins

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