Czech-designed turbines power mining museum in England

In Czech Science today we travel to the Northeast of England for a look at a successful example of Czech industrial design.

Lead used to be mined at the Nenthead Mines in the county of Cumbria, but now the whole area has been turned into an industrial heritage site. Just like the former inhabitants of the site the modern-day users rely on the power of water. And they turned to a Czech company to provide and install the equipment.

Martin Exner of the company Hydrohrom/Hydrolink describes the hydro-power system in the ancient mining area.

"There is a site with two different big lakes and from both these lakes pipes come down to the museum. On each pipe one Hydrolink turbine is installed. They are two Pelton turbines. One turbine has a generator output of 245 kW and the second turbine is much smaller, it has a generator output of about 90 kW. The bigger turbine works on the head of 121 metres, the second turbine works on the head of 48 metres. The difference is there because, as I said, there are two different lakes."

Water turbines were used at the lead mining site in its heyday in the Victorian era. David Flush of the North Pennines Heritage Centre.

"Back in the 1800s we had water turbines that were producing compressed air for the mines themselves. We had a derelict shed where the compressors used to be. We are talking of the 1870s-1880s. But we demolished that shed and put a new building up to house the two new turbines."

Martin Exner of the Czech company Hydrolink says one of the advantages of the Czech-made hydro-power system is that it can be tailored to the needs of the customer.

"The design is completely Czech, it is our design and what is quite interesting is that we have a special compact concept with a compact turbine casing. This enables a very small power house so there are very small space requirements for these two turbines, which was particularly required by the customer."

The Czech-made turbines provide power for the site and any surplus electricity is put into the national grid.

Environmental friendliness was one of the requirements but also sensitivity to the historical value of the site. David Flush again.

"We are very pleased with the turbines themselves and the way they perform. The other thing that convinced us to actually do this project is that our site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, so it's protected by all sorts of laws in this country and the project allowed us to restore a lot of the Victorian water systems that were put in the 1800s. And since we are a conservation charity that really was very good for us."

Meanwhile the company Hydrolink is installing another turbine of a different Czech design elsewhere in the United Kingdom. As Martin Exner says about 80 percent of their production goes to export, mainly to Western European countries like Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway or Iceland but also distant places such as Nepal.