Solar solution keeps Welsh Water treatment plant pumping 15 September 2010

Welsh Water's Llanrhidian waste water treatment plant is reporting success with a solar-powered recirculating pump.

The plant, which is on the Gower Peninsular, has no power supply, so Welsh Water contracted Nov Mono to install the new pump to improve treatment efficiency.

The plant, which consists of a biological filter bed and two final tanks, had been drying out during long spells of dry weather, killing off the biological process. Hence the need for a re-circulation system from the final tank up to the filter bed that would pump around 2 l/sec of final effluent onto the filter bed.

Mike Gillard, capital engineer at Welsh Water, explains that the Mono pump uses renewable energy from the PV solar panel to pump the effluent back to the filter bed and keep the biological process from drying out.

The installation consists of a Mono SunSub submersible pump, solar array, controller cable and safety wire, together with a GRP kiosk to house all controls, back up batteries, pump starter for the solar unit and seasonal timer controls.

"We chose to go with Mono's system as it offered the most cost-effective solution for the site's remote location. The company listened to our needs and worked with us to solve our problem in the most efficient way possible," comments Gillard.

"We've also been impressed by Mono's recent pump design innovations, which have gone a long way to solving the challenging maintenance and repair issues that we have struggled to tackle over the years," he adds.

Gillard says Welsh Water is now looking at how the technology might be used to resolve similar issues at other remote sites.

BrianTinham

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