The Whitby Esk Energy – Ruswarp Hydro
a community-owned 50kW Archimedes screw hydroelectric turbine on the River Esk at Ruswarp, near Whitby, North Yorkshire
a member 0f
The scheme is run by volunteers through Esk Energy (Yorkshire) Limited, a registered society. Our main aim is to reduce the carbon footprint of the Esk Valley through generating renewable electricity.
Whitby Esk Energy – five years on
Open afternoon – Saturday 8th July
Visit the Whitby Esk Energy site at Ruswarp near Whitby on Saturday 8th July.
Find out about our journey from the arrival of the Archimedes screw in the summer of 2012 to how we work now as a community energy company exporting electricity to the national grid.
Arrive from 1.30pm, at Ruswarp Village Hall, for an introductory talk starting at 2pm followed by a visit to the site nearby.
Why don’t you come by train and combine the tour with a visit to a local café or pub?
The site visit will finish by 3.15 pm to let you catch the train along the scenic Esk Valley line to Whitby or towards Middlesbrough.
To book a place email or phone 07410 549833.
NYMNPA apprentices visit site April 2017
Recently the two teams of apprentices who work for the Nor
th York Moors National Park visited our site.
They had a tour round to find out how the turbine works and what was involved in setting up the scheme.
Following the tour they helped our team of volunteers to thin out alder saplings and sort the debris that has been cleared from the inlet screen.
Key Stage 2 resources for schools
In 2016, Esk Energy successfully applied for a grant from the Ernest Cook Trust to undertake a project with Ruswarp C of E Primary School to help them develop their literacy and numeracy skills by exploring how we generate electricity from their river. The grant was to enable us to undertake a project which would involve developing materials, a visit to the school to work with groups of key stage 2 children and then visits to the site for the children to see the turbine in action.
We developed two sets of resources to support literacy, numeracy and science for lower and upper key stage 2. The downloadable packs include workbooks, PPt slides and session plans. We also built a model to demonstrate how the turbine works. 
Two classes visited site following sessions in the classroom.
Feedback from the school:
I’ve Got The Power! (14th September)
Torches and turbines… An electrifying day as we were visited by representatives of the local hydro-electricity project, Eureka. Workshops and a wander across to the enormous Archimedes Screw (based upon a design a mere 2,000 years old!) made for a fascinating morning!
Feedback from the children:
