Wales set for first football stadium powered entirely by water

Anthony Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter

Wales is set for a first-of-its-kind football stadium which will be powered by clean energy sourced from a local hydro plant.

The plans would see Cambrian United’s home turf in the former mining community of Clydach Vale powered by the nearby Nant Clydach stream, if approved by Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council after plans are submitted next month.

By night, power will be sent to the stadium’s floodlights, while a local school will benefit from cheap energy in the day.

In a region shaped by the historic coal industry, the head of the project says the effort is part of their “journey from black to green”.

Organisers say the scheme is primarily a “business case” rather than a sustainability drive and will put the club on a firm financial footing for the future.

Founded in 1965 Cambrian United – known as the Sky Blues – play in the JD Cymru South league where they currently top the division.

The club also runs a successful academy, which has just coached its 103rd young player to join a professional side.

Cambrian Village Trust are behind the plans, with their director, Phillip Williams, saying micro-hydro could help communities in the Rhondda – as it is blessed with a landscape carved by powerful streams.

“I would say if you’ve got the potential to develop a micro-hydro plant within your community then it’s a no-brainer,” Mr Williams said.

Regeneration

For Mr Williams community energy schemes like the project give back to communities which have been left behind.

“The coal industry left deprivation. When the mines all shut there was deprivation, scarred landscapes, and the valleys have obviously struggled to regenerate themselves from those days,” he said.

The trust is already a pioneer of the technology and uses one plant to power its café and learning facilities.

Reducing their bills from £2,900 a month to £350 they have cut their energy costs by almost 90%.

Mr Williams’ organisation has also been an inspiration to other groups in the Rhondda.

A 20-minute drive from the Cambrian United ground Welcome To Our Woods runs what it calls a “social forestry site” powered by micro-hydro.

Opened in 2018 on land leased from Natural Resources Wales the Treherbert-based project brings in £20,000 a year by selling 135,000kW – enough to power more than 60 homes – of electricity to the grid.

The proceeds generated have funded the programme of community events the group runs. These include a forestry school with 25 students enrolled this year.

‘Enormous potential’

The brook, the Nant Saebren, tucked into the woods near Treherbert is on course to have earned a total of £140,000 over its lifetime.

“Everybody involved is very proud of it,” Ian Thomas, founder and managing director of the Cwm Saebren scheme, said.

“It’s a real achievement for us,” Mr Thomas added.

Mr Thomas added the group had already paid off a loan from the Welsh Government just from the proceeds of the power generated by the water.

Experts say thousands of streams in the Welsh valleys could make local communities energy independent and power Wales’s transition to a clean grid.

“There’s enormous potential. We did a study which identified 20 potential hydro sites in Rhondda Cynon Taf alone,” Chris Blake, former director of Green Valleys, which helped install renewables in south Wales, and now trustee at Welcome To Our Woods, said.

“Community energy projects bring people together to harness their own landscape for creating energy. But they can also produce financial returns for local investors and for the social enterprises that organise them,” Mr Blake added.