City of Sheffield RC, Sheffield University RC and Sheffield Hallam University RC share facilities at Damflask Reservoir just outside the ‘steel city’. Nestled amongst the hills of the Peak District National Park, they’re in a picturesque location, but with no mains electricity in the boathouse the clubs had long relied on carbon-intensive generators… until they switched to a renewable solution.
A bit of background
Compared with many, the three Sheffield rowing clubs are relatively recently formed having started out in the 1970s from a simple boatshed, which had no water, gas or electricity supply. Members came to the club already changed, and members found relief in the woods; men to the left and women to the right.
As the clubs expanded, they built an additional boathouse in the 1990s, which included water (and therefore a toilet), changing rooms and even showers! Calor gas supplied fuel for heating water, and diesel generator powered the lighting. The original generator was large and weighed more than a tonne, but nevertheless thieves stole it one night! After that, they existed on electrical supply from small portable generators.
Fine tuning the solution
Former CSRC Chairman Donald McDougall, a retired engineer, explains, “In 2015 we investigated the cost of getting mains electric to the club but this was prohibitive – around £80,000 just to install the supply. So we investigated solar power and eventually got a quote for around £10,000.”
The system now includes 10 photovoltaic (PV panels) on the boathouse roof, potentially generating nearly 4 kW and a 3.5 kWh battery storage system. This gives a 220 volt supply for lighting in both boathouses, bringing lighting to the older shed for the first time. The control units and battery (shown at the top of this the page) fit neatly into a corner of the boathouse with no impact on equipment storage space.
The clubs originally installed the system in January 2024 with five solar panels and but found that with dark days the battery wasn’t getting sufficient charge to keep lights going for more than a couple of hours. “We’d changed all the lighting units from fluorescent to LED to reduce the load, but it was still an issue,” Donald adds. “In addition, the control panel setting meant no power could be drawn from the battery until it was at least 50% full, which often meant that no lighting was available first thing in the morning – just when people were coming to train. We installed a further five panels in January 2025 and adjusted the control panel settings and this appears to be working much better.”
The power now is sufficient to supply lighting for both boathouses (around 130 sq metres in total) and there are sockets for small equipment such as a laptop, video projector, or even the kettle!
And there was light
One of the most pressing challenges that the previous lack of lighting ‘at the flick of a switch’ in the boathouses was the fact that the toilet was in virtual darkness. Club members quickly learned to perfect the technique of noting where the loo roll was before closing the door. Now, they can ‘see to pee’.
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Photos: Eva Thorburn, Sheffield Hallam University RC.
