Hydro-BPT visits Gilkes Factory and meets with staff to discuss hydropower
On Friday the 17th of November, John Gallagher visited Gilkes in Kendal, Cumbria to meet with staff and to see the work involved in turbine manufacturing. Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd is a engineering company that have been invovled in manufacturing turbines for over 160 years. The visit to Gilkes was to discuss the work carried out by the Hydro-BPT team on assessing the environmental impacts of hydro installations and to see the factory floor where turbines are being constructed for project stakeholders such as Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, National Trust Wales and Dulas.
Francis Turbine at Gilkes Factory: (source: Gilkes website)
The factory construct Francis, Pelton and Turgo turbines and have build turbines that generate up to 40MW. The hydro industry has expanded significantly in the past few years and Gilkes have gone from strength to strength. From the visit, it was also clear that as the business is evolving so is the technology in constructing the turbines and the amount of work that is required to design, construct and deliver a turbine can take up to a year in some cases.
The meeting and visit to Gilkes was positive and it was good to see the process of turbine manufacturing. It is hoped that Gilkes will attend the 2014 stakeholder committee meeting and can contribute to the future directions of the Hydro-BPT project.
Publication date: 20 November 2013