ONE OF the first hydro-electricy stations on the Thames is set to be built at an historic riverside site in Oxford.

The power of the Thames looks like being harnessed to generate electricity for 12 new flats to be built at Osney Mill.

The site contains the remains of the 12th-century Osney Abbey, along with part of the Osney Mill building, which was destroyed by a fire in the mid-1940s.

An application to install a hydro-electricity turbine has been submitted to Oxford City Council by the Munsey family, owners of the site, who have been milling in Oxford for four generations.

Mr Tony Munsey said the company had already obtained approval from the Environment Agency to extract water from the Thames.

He said: “We hope to have it operating by the late summer. We expect that the construction will be going on at the same time as the work on the flats and the refurbishment of the mill.”

He said the micro-hydro-electricity generating scheme would help alleviate the risk of flooding to homes on Osney Island.

Mr Munsey said: “We want to put it here because the mill was always run by a turbine, until it burnt down. But its position on this stretch of the river could mean that water flow levels may be insufficient during some dry summers.”

The technology is based on the Archimedean screw. The station will be positioned at the original Osney Mill cut.

Mr Munsey said: “The cut will need to be dredged because we believe there may be a stone floor. There will also need to be some civil engineering to funnel the water into the screw.”

A second hydro-electricity station could eventually be created on the other side of the Thames, near Osney Lock. A similar scheme has been put forward by the West Oxford Low Carbon group, formed in the aftermath of the 2007 floods.

The group is in the running to win £1m funding after being named as one of the ten finalists in the Big Green Challenge, run by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts).

One of the projects they are putting forward is for a hydro-turbine at Osney Weir, able to generate 250,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, to meet the needs of about 60 homes.

Now Osney residents will be watching with interest the progress of the W.H. Munsey Developments scheme across the river.

The Munsey family have owned Osney Abbey since 1910.

It is the last surviving structure of a priory founded in 1129.

The company wants to use the Grade II-listed abbey building as offices or a conference facility.

Mr Munsey last year criticised English Heritage’s decision to place the building on its at-risk register insisting that the building was basically sound.