HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

Hokitika Guardian, 6 December 1932, Page 6

HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

ITS WIDE USE IN SCANDINAVIA

(Per Press Association — Copyright.'

’WELLINGTON,, ‘December 6

Au intei ebting account of hydro-elec-tric works in Scandinavia was given yesterday by Mr, I. Toomis, M.1.0.E., M.1.M.E., who arrived by the Ruahine from London oh his first visit to a British Dominion, 'after spending the best years of his life' abroad engaged in civil 1 enginedi-tiig. Mjr Toonis is a councillor of the borough of Deal, formerly one of the Cinque ports and reputed fo he at or near the spot at which Julius Ceassr landed in Britain.

“Norway has gone whole-heartedly into hydro-electricity as a source cf power,” said Mr Toonis, “and the whole country's factories are driven by electricity. About twenty years «go the Government granted con-cessions to private concerns, some of which were perpetual, but such concessions cannot be gained at the preseifc time, and the cost o-f the undertaking must be recouped within about twenty vcHrs before the plant reverts to the Government.”

' Norway was one of the host endowed countries in the world so far as nativ' 1 resources for hydro-electric' power were concerned said Mr Toonis, and there whs a- network of power stations (scattered throughout the country. Many of thenn were private undertakings, but municipal and Government stations had also been instructed. It was intended to electrify all the country’s Government-owned railways. The hydro-electric schemes varied according to the nature of the water power available. In some instances a. broad, but not very high, foil of water was used to drive the turbines, and in others a steep, narrow waterrace was constructed. Owing to the solid rock of the' country no trouble was experienced in regard to the- foundations.

In Norway it wrs customary to e-'H the current on the kilowatt-year pirimc’ple, hut there was now a tendency to introduce the meter system, which is usually vised in New Zealand. Dospito the competition it met from electricity, o-jiis still holi its own, to a large extent owing to Die price to be obtained for the by-products.