WATER POWER SCHEME.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 November 1920, Page 3

WATER POWER SCHEME.

FUItTHER PAKQCDDARS.

rAUSTRALIAN & N.Z. OAJUjB ASSOCIATION] LONDON, November 26. The Transport Ministry’s Engineering Department has published details of the world’s greatest water power scheme for utilising the river Severn’s tides in order to produce an estimated total of over half a million electrical horsepower per ten hour day. Niagara Falls only furnishes 285 thousand a day. In the Ministry’s words “this scheme posssesses limitless attractions, opening up a, vista which wilt be little short of an industrial revolution in Wales, and j Western and Midland, England, effee- . tivcly solving the traffic problems in 1 that region, and bringing within reach of all classes of the community the blessings of cheap light and power, Tlie scheme proposes tlie. construction of a barrage on the Severn, in the vicinity of the Severn tunnel. The tide would be admitted through swinging sluices, automatically closing when the tide j began to fall, the water passing in- [ stead through gigantic turbines, capably of generating a million horsepower. A subsidiary scheme, which itself is gigantic, proposes a vast high level lake in the Urge Valley, above Tintern Abbey, Surplus power generated by turbines will be utilised to pump water to the lake, being forced en route thro(iigli a tunnel a mile in length ahd forty feet in diameter. This lake would be used to supply reserve power when tidal power during neap tides was below requirements. It is believed, the lake project would solve a difficult problem of securing an ample const,ant supply of power, which arises

from the fact that neap tides furnish only one quarter of the power of spring tides. The derivative projects are themselves of the first magnitude. Some would create a shipping basis covering twenty seven square miles much of which would be usable by the largest vessels in any state of the tide. Shores suitable for great industrial undertakings and deepwater wharves could easily be constructed and widuld revolutionise the canal system of England by providing direct transhipment from the great industrial centres. The dam would carry several rail tracks, dispensing with tl>e objectionable Severn tunnel, also roads, including a concrete road for motor transport, saving fifty mile deviation through Gloucester. Brigadier-General Sir Alexander, Gibb developed the main lines of the scheme and two leading Engineers worked out the details. The Ministry says little as regards the financial and commercial aspects, but it is estimated power would be produced at a cost of a halfpenny per Board of Trade /unit. This would save the nation about four million tons of coal a year, besides estnblisning a new shipping and industrial region. One newspaper says it understands the scheme would cost from twenvv-five to thirty millions, employing a ouarter of a million men for seven years. The newspapers’ comment i§ cautious, welcoming the project as rentaining illimitable possibilities, but pointing out that it has yet to be proved as a commercial proposition.