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 of
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. Learn – Share – Educate
Management of share register
Esk Energy has reached an important milestone as we have paid off the loan from the North York Moors National Park Authority. Therefore, we are now in the position to be able to pay for some of the work that has been undertaken on a voluntary basis. Caryn Loftus will be remaining as Company Secretary and re-standing as a Director at the next AGM but handing over the maintenance of our share register to Sharenergy from 1st July. Sharenergy help communities both set up new projects and run existing community energy projects. They came highly recommended to us.
Included in the management of the share register is the organising of share interest payments, sending out share interest payments and communication relating to our AGM. Therefore, from 1st July, any communication relating to your shareholding will come via Sharenergy. After that date, if you have any queries relating to your shareholding please contact Sharenergy.
Esk Estuary event 28th June 2025
The Whitby Esk Energy team are taking our working model of the turbine to the Wonders of the Esk event in Whitby on Saturday 28th June. Hope to see you at the Seafarers Mission sometime between 11am and 3pm.
Rory’s blog: spring 2025
What a change since my last blog! As most people will be all too well aware, after a wet winter, with lots of generation, we are now experiencing what may well turn out to be the driest spring for many years, and as a result we haven’t generated anything at all for weeks. At least anyone with solar panels should be doing well.
UK weather is so variable anyway that we budget for long dry periods, so it’s not a financial disaster if we don’t run for a while. We also recently paid off the last instalment of our loan from the National Park – we are very pleased to have reached this landmark – so we are in a strong position with our finances., even if we have a poor year for generation. We do like to keep funds in reserve in case of a major breakdown needing costly repairs – particularly as we have struggled recently to get breakdown insurance cover. It’s a good time to have finished paying back the Park.
I mentioned the dam in the last blog. The dam at Ruswarp was of course built to provide a head of water to drive the mill on the other side of the river; now the mill is no longer operating and has been converted into housing, the same head of water is what drives the turbine. A mill has been in place for many years, and as a result so has the dam which is starting to show its age. It’s an interesting construction: the upstream face is made of vertical timbers (we think aspen is the wood) with a stone cap; behind this is rubble infill covered by a sloping stone facing leading down to the lower river. In places the stone facing has become dislodged, or the rubble infill has shifted, resulting in holes in the downstream dam face; there’s also one area where the stone cap looks unstable. One advantage of the dry weather is that it’s now relatively safe to walk along the dam for a more detailed inspection, and we will be doing this. Watch this space as to what repairs might be needed.
Meanwhile enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!
Rory Newman, Chair of Esk Energy
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