The Swansea barrage (or the Tawe barrage) is a structure near the mouth of the River Tawe in Swansea, Wales. It was completed in 1992, creating a marina which extended the leisure boat facilities already being offered by the former South Dock.[1]
The barrage structure includes a boat lock, spillway, fish pass and generatorturbine. The turbine serves a dual use: acting as a power generator for the National Grid as well as being used to pump water back into the Tawe river system. The barrage has an installed generating capacity of 200kW.[2]
The barrage scheme gave rise to a number of environmental concerns. Fish navigation up the river and dissolved oxygen levels were problems that arose after completion.[3]Salt water that came in at high spring tides sank to the bottom and stayed there, reducing oxygen levels. The Environmental Advice Centre was commissioned to undertake an aeration scheme trial in the Tawe in the summer of 1998. The system was based on a diffuser design and propeller mixer, which proved highly effective at exporting the salt water from the deep area of the trial site and raising dissolved oxygen concentrations at the bed.
Following the success of the trial system, a more extensive system was designed for installation in 1999–2000. The installation was conducted using a diving team to ensure optimal location of the diffusers within the river channel. The installation was expected to treat all the problem areas over a 4 kilometres (2.5mi) long reach of river and ameliorate the poor water quality present in these areas. Monitoring results from the system installed to date have indicated that aeration has effectively raised the oxygen concentration and assisted in the export of saline water from the system. Following the success of the River Tawe aeration scheme, the city of Cardiff used the same method to improve the quality of the water in its newly created bay.
Other fears that arose with the building of the barrage such as the raising of the water table causing ground subsidence problems in the low-lying areas around the River Tawe did not materialize.
Cardiff Bay Barrage lies across the mouth of Cardiff Bay, Wales between Queen Alexandra Dock and Penarth Head. It was one of the largest civil engineering projects in Europe during construction in the 1990s.
Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods.
The River Tawe is a 30 miles (48 km) long river in South Wales. Its headwaters flow initially east from its source below Llyn y Fan Fawr south of Moel Feity in the Black Mountains, the westernmost range of the Brecon Beacons National Park, before the river turns south and then southwest to its estuary at Swansea. Its main tributaries are the right bank Upper and Lower Clydach Rivers and the Afon Twrch. The total area of the catchment is some 246 km2 (95 sq mi). The Tawe passes through a number of towns and villages including Ystradgynlais, Ystalyfera, Pontardawe, and Clydach and meets the sea at Swansea Bay below Swansea. The Tawe Valley is more commonly known as the Swansea Valley.
The history of Swansea covers a period of continuous occupation stretching back a thousand years, while there is archaeological evidence of prehistoric human occupation of the surrounding area for thousands of years before that.
Micro hydro is a type of hydroelectric power that typically produces from 5 kW to 100 kW of electricity using the natural flow of water. Installations below 5 kW are called pico hydro. These installations can provide power to an isolated home or small community, or are sometimes connected to electric power networks, particularly where net metering is offered. There are many of these installations around the world, particularly in developing nations as they can provide an economical source of energy without the purchase of fuel. Micro hydro systems complement solar PV power systems because in many areas water flow, and thus available hydro power, is highest in the winter when solar energy is at a minimum. Micro hydro is frequently accomplished with a pelton wheel for high head, low flow water supply. The installation is often just a small dammed pool, at the top of a waterfall, with several hundred feet of pipe leading to a small generator housing. In low head sites, generally water wheels and Archimedes' screws are used.
The Maritime Quarter is a residential area of Swansea, Wales, immediately south of the city centre shopping core. It falls within Swansea's Castle ward. The area is bounded by Brynmill to the west, Swansea Bay to the South, the River Tawe to the east and the A4067 to the north.
The Swansea Canal was a canal constructed by the Swansea Canal Navigation Company between 1794 and 1798, running for 16.5 miles (26.6 km) from Swansea to Hen Neuadd, Abercraf in South Wales. It was steeply graded, and 36 locks were needed to enable it to rise 373 feet (114 m) over its length. The main cargos were coal, iron and steel, and the enterprise was profitable.
Swansea Marina is a marina in Swansea, south Wales, behind the barrage at the mouth of the River Tawe. There is a boatyard for building and servicing boats, and a few shops selling boating equipment.
The Shoalhaven Scheme is a dual-purpose water supply and Pumped-storage Hydroelectricity scheme located on the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia.
Water aeration is the process of increasing or maintaining the oxygen saturation of water in both natural and artificial environments. Aeration techniques are commonly used in pond, lake, and reservoir management to address low oxygen levels or algal blooms.
Aeration is the process by which air is circulated through, mixed with or dissolved in a liquid or other substances that act as a fluid. Aeration processes create additional surface area in the mixture, allowing greater chemical or suspension reactions.
Swansea Docks is the collective name for several docks in Swansea, Wales, which are immediately south-east of Swansea city centre. In the mid-19th century, the port was exporting 60% of the world's copper from factories situated in the Tawe Valley. The working docks area today is owned and operated by Associated British Ports as the Port of Swansea, and the northern part around the Prince of Wales Dock is undergoing re-development into a new urban area branded as the SA1 Swansea Waterfront.
Ghazi-Barotha Hydropower Project is a 1,450 MW run-of-the-river hydropower, connected to the Indus River. It is located about 10 km (6.2 mi) west of Attock in the Punjab province and east of Haripur in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Construction of the project began in 1995. It consists of five generators, each possessing a maximum power generation capacity of 290 MW. The inauguration of the plant took place on 19 August 2003, presided over by the then President General Pervez Musharraf. It also saw the commissioning of the first two of the five generators i.e. Unit 1 and Unit 2. The last generator was commissioned on 6 April, 2004, and the project was completed by December the same year. It costed US$2.1 billion with funding from Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, European Investment Bank and Islamic Development Bank.
Marine Current Turbines Ltd (MCT), was a United Kingdom-based company that developed tidal stream generators, most notably the 1.2 MW SeaGen turbine. The company was bought by the German automation company, Siemens in 2012, who later sold the company to Atlantis Resources in 2015.
A livewell is a water tank found on many fishing boats that is used to keep bait and caught fish alive. It works by pumping fresh water from the surrounding body into the tank, as well as keeping the water aerated. A rule of thumb for determining the necessitated size of a livewell is that every one inch length of fish needs a gallon of water if it is desired to keep the fish alive for a prolonged period of time.
The gravitation water vortex power plant is a type of micro hydro vortex turbine system which converts energy in a moving fluid to rotational energy using a low hydraulic head of 0.7–3 metres. This technology is based on a round basin with a central drain. Above the drain, the water forms a stable line vortex which drives a water turbine.
A tidal barrage is a dam-like structure used to capture the energy from masses of water moving in and out of a bay or river due to tidal forces.
The Dakpathar Barrage is a concrete barrage across the Yamuna River adjacent to Dakpathar in Uttarakhand, India. In a run-of-the-river scheme, the barrage serves to divert water into the East Yamuna Canal for hydroelectric power production at the Dhakrani and Dhalipur Power Plants. The foundation stone for the dam was laid on 23 May 1949 by India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The barrage is controlled by 25 floodgates and has a length of 516.5 m (1,695 ft).
The Pashulok Barrage is a barrage located on the Ganges River just south of Rishikesh in Dehradun district, Uttarakhand, India.
The Monmouth New Hydro Scheme, which incorporates the Osbaston fish pass, is a hydroelectric scheme in Osbaston, near Monmouth, in South-East Wales.
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