British Canals to Become Green Power Stations

October 8th, 2008 by Ariel Schwartz

SmartPlanet report that British Waterways is turning UK canals into alternative energy power stations. The company’s proposal calls for 50 wind turbines and assorted small-scale hydro-power schemes to be installed in canals and locations. In addition to generating enough energy to power 45,000 homes (100 MW of capacity), the proposal will save over 100,000 tons of CO2 each year.

While British Waterways doesn’t provide a timeline for their plan, the company does want to expand its network of green power stations across the UK’s 2,200 mile network of canals and rivers. If the canal network is used to its full capacity, it could generate 10 times more electricity than it consumes.

And rest assured that the UK’s canals will be preserved—all money made from selling the project’s renewable energy will go towards maintaining them.

The British Waterways project is just another in a line of schemes to use our existing infrastructure for environmentally-friendly purposes. It’s a trend that I’d like to see become even more common.

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons









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