Staff at Hebden Bridge National Trust site are waving goodbye to ‘dirty’ diesel generator after ‘game-changing’ solar project

Gibson Mill at Hardcastle Crags has been running as an off-grid site using solar and hydro power for nearly 20 years.

Now after a major upgrade to their solar panels, staff at the Grade II-listed building no longer need to worry about keeping the ice cream freezers running and putting the kettle on to serve guests tea and coffee.

“Two or three years ago we’d have cloudy days where we wouldn’t be able to serve hot food to our guests,” said site manager Chris Bryerley.

“We’ve always tried to educate people about why that was, with us being an entirely off-grid site. But now, with our state-of-the-art solar panels, we’re always generating power even on cloudy days.”

The new solar array, which was installed by Halifax-based Eclipse Energy, generates up to 9,626kWh of electricity annually.

This is a near-300 per cent increase on the old panels, which will be reused by Fountains Abbey as a small part of their own solar project.

The extra energy means staff at Gibson Mill can finally wave goodbye to their old diesel generator, which was needed to power larger events such as weddings.

“It was smelly, noisy and dirty,” Chris said of the generator. “We won’t miss it and nor will our visitors, as it was the biggest source of complaints we got. We understood that criticism because we promote ourselves as an off-grid, sustainable site but the technology was outdated and struggled to cope with how popular we’ve become.

“Now when we have busy days or big events visitors can know that their ice creams, teas and coffees have all been powered by clean energy produced on site.”

Gibson Mill is situated in a wooded valley and is a popular place for walkers to rest along Hebden Beck, and Chris believes that producing its own energy and educating the public about sustainability is a key part of the building’s heritage.

“The only reason the mill is here is because the adjacent river meant it could produce its own power via a waterwheel,” Chris says. “So ever since 1805 this site has had a heritage of making energy from renewable sources - now we’ve come full circle.”

Alongside the solar panels the site still uses hydro power from the river, though Chris has said that is in jeopardy as weather becomes more extreme.

“Hydro power works best with a regular flow of water and, as the weather becomes more unpredictable because of climate change, that’s harder to maintain. When we have droughts in summer the river is too low, and when we have heavy periods of rain the site floods and we can’t run the hydro. It’s why upgrading the solar panels was so important.”

Instead of hiding the technology away Chris has been keen to ensure visitors can see for themselves how the site is powered. Inside the mill all the dials which show how much power is being produced from both the solar and hydro power are on display.