A visit to the Department of Industry's Clear Skies alternative energy website will find no mention of the water wheel among the technologies eligible for "green friendly" grant support. The environmental credentials of this once universal clean technology simply do not make it. "In general," says Dr Gerald Mueller, a civil engineering researcher at Southampton University, "small scale hydropower is virtually written off in Europe by most governments and support agencies. Sites suitable for the smaller turbines are almost all used up, it is assumed, because of early industrial development."
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