A RAGING torrent of powerful energy, or a placid feature of the Oxfordshire landscape sitting in the middle of the mighty River Thames.

This is Sandford Hydro, possibly like you’ve never seen it before.

To celebrate the news this month that its £3.2m hydroelectric power plant is finally operational, Oxford’s Low Carbon Hub has shared a photo album with pictures from its construction right up to the present day.

The photo on the bottom right here shows one of the huge Archimedes screws – built in Hungary and weighing 22 tonnes – churning Thames water out as it generates powerful electricity.

The bottom picture shows those screws being transported onto the site then lowered into place in May 2017.

The photo in the centre of this spread shows the ‘fish pass’ – a little artificial stream built around the plant to let fish and other animals swim around the structure safely.

The aerial shots to the left and right reveal how the massive structure now fits into the landscape.

With everything that might have gone wrong in the lengthy construction process, the team at Low Carbon Hub are understandably delighted that the creation is now not only complete but actually generating carbon-free electricity from the river Thames.

In his latest update about the project on the hub’s website, Adriano Figueiredo, the man who has led the scheme from the start, said: “It’s great news that we’re now operational and generating clean energy from the Thames.

“Having seen the plant through from planning to operations has been a big job, so I’m really pleased we’ve done it.”

The first talk of a hydroelectric power plant in the Thames at Sandford was in 2014, at a time when a similar one at Osney Weir in Oxford was still being completed and there was still plans for one at Abingdon.

The following year, Low Carbon Hub announced it was helping villagers to raise the £3m to build such a plant – or possibly the villagers were helping the hub – and planning permission was granted.

After raising a total of £3.2m the hub started construction in 2016, lowering the enormous screws into place in spring 2017.

The screws, each weighing more than three African elephants, generate enough electricity to power 450 homes.

The plant is now owned by more than 250 investors, many of them local residents, who invested in the dream.

Buying shares at £250 each, they invested more than £1.2m in total, and will now get a small annual dividend as well eventually getting their original investment back.

The other £2m came from a Charity Bank loan.

Because the solid steel screws are so massive, the river will only be able to turn them when it is at its full flow in autumn, winter and spring.

Find out more about the scheme and its benefits for the environment on its web page: lowcarbonhub.org/projects/sandford-hydro