Talybont on Usk Energy Ltd owns and manages a community hydro scheme in the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. Our 36kW hydro electric turbine works off the compensation flow from Talybont Reservoir and started running in 2006. It was the first community hydro scheme in Wales. After a 7 year gap when Welsh Water were carrying out dam maintenance, we were able to restart the turbine in April 2023.
We sell the electricity generated by the hydro via Good Energy and invest the income in energy saving and sustainable living projects within our small rural community.
From 2010 until 2021, we operated a community eco car share scheme with one electric van and a car running on recycled vegetable oil. We 
installed 8kW PV panels on the community hall roof which helps cover the hall’s running costs and powers the community electric car. We also funded the installation of air source heating in the hall and an eco pod for the community teenagers to enjoy. We have developed a primary school education package and collaborated with our community cub group to develop the first ever community eco award for cubs. We have donated a proportion of our hydro income to the Community Council to award to a wide range of community projects. Sadly, from 2016 until 2023, our turbine was unable to operate as a result of dam maintenance works so we had no income for that period to cover our costs and had to cull the car share scheme along with other supported projects.
You can read on this site about who we are, our aims and history, the Talybont turbine and our community projects.
An invite to our community groups…….
(May 2024) We are planning a series of informal meet ups with any of our wide diversity of community groups or village businesses who would like to explore ideas of how to reduce their energy or increase sustainability in the activities they run or the facilities they manage. We can then look to help fund any ideas or projects which emerge.
This might involve chatting together about :-
- current energy use & costs – ways to reduce them
- consumption of resources like tools, materials, food
- possibilities of sharing resources or energy
- how to convert to more renewable sources of energy or more sustainable practices
- ways to generate renewable energy
- recycling, sharing or re-use of materials,
- skills training
Projects might involve heating, lighting, insulation, transport, consumables (food or materials) or activities/events of any kind for our community or our visitors.
If your group, organisation or community based business would be interested in meeting up with us for an hour sometime to chat through ideas informally, then do contact us at info@talybontenergy.co.uk
Talybont-on-Usk Energy 
Well done to you all. I live in Trefriw, we are famous for our lakes, reservoirs and cascading rivers.
How do we build our own hydroelectric scheme?
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At Talybont, we were very lucky as there was already a reservoir that had a disused hydro scheme from the 1930’s so there were no significant land ownership and planning issues (which plague many schemes) and much of the necessary infrastructure was already there. We had to install a new turbine in the existing turbine house. We lease the turbine house from our friendly landlords, Welsh Water.
A good company to get in touch with if you have a possible scheme to consider is TGV Hydro They are local to us but may consider projects in North Wales. Good Luck!
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When you say subscribe in your reply does it mean register or is there a charge to be paid? Please reply, because I would like to keep in touch. Keith
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You can become a member of Talybont Energy which is free. https://talybontenergy.co.uk/join-talybont-energy/ You can also opt to follow our blog via wordpress (also free)
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