Cleghorn hydropower station - renewable energy

Cleghorn hydropower station is a run-of-river plant hidden in ancient woodland in an area of stunning natural beauty.

The site at Cleghorn as a long association with hydropower: TLS Hydro is the third company to build a station here since the Victorian era.

Where is it?

Cleghorn is near Lanark, Scotland, almost exactly half-way between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Site history

Cleghorn was commissioned as a hydropower plant in the 1880s and was replaced by a new scheme in the interwar period. Aside from nearby homes and farms, the original powered a wide variety of different sites including an electric tram system, a hosiery factory and a factory that produced blankets during World War Two.

Our turbine was installed in the original turbine house and we used the existing weir to reduce the impact on the landscape and pay homage to the site's history.

The hydropower plant

Cleghorn's double kaplan turbine as an installed capacity of 280kW.

What’s the environmental impact?

Cleghorn can produce 900,000kwh of electricity each year, which is enough to power 225 homes a year.

Cleghorn has received plaudits from Scottish Renewables for it's environmental credentials. We had to clean up a great deal of oil from the site associated with it's previous functions and it complies with all the necessary regulations associated with the region's SAC (Special Area of Conservation) Status.