POWER FROM RAIN

Hokitika Guardian, 15 February 1933, Page 8

POWER FROM RAIN

USING HIGHLAND LOCHS VAST ELECTRICAL ENERGY. LONDON, Feb. 9. A great engineering worn is quietly taking place m the r.».igin«,ncls of Scotland. jHe waters of some of tlie loclis. are being ..earned through. the mountains to produce, electrical energy for the manu.Picture of aluminium. Woric iia.s been \u progress ror some years m tlie great Lochaber water-

l-unur smlioine, aitu a few weeks another tunnel through tlie mountains was Completed. This tunnel, three iui.es> .oiig ana more than fifteen feet in diameter, is to.bring the waters of Loch i.iaggan and the byean River into Loch Treig. 'J he level of this loch is to be- raised 40 feet by the construction of a dam 440 feet long at its northern end. in readiness tor the' tune when this happens a mile and a half section of the London and North-East-ern Railway has been lifted by 45 feet. Its old position will be many feet under water when the scheme is completed. The Lochaber power system will draw on an area of 303 square miles in a mountainous district where the rainfall is heavy. Already a tunnel 15 miles' long and 15 feet diameter has been driven through Ben Nevis to carry the waters of Loch Treig to a

steol pipe-line, 3,200 feet long, which runs t« the power-house of the factories at Fort William.

| lu addition to the Loch Treig dam another is being built four and a half miles below the western end of Loch , Laggan. This will be 700 feet long 1 and 100 feet at the highest. Lochs Treig and Laggan will thus be greatly enlarged and will be the main reservoirs fi;om which water will be drawn to operate the power-stations, j Yet another dam i,s. to be built to J form a. reservoir in the River Spey. This dam will be 900 feet long and 30 feet high, and its purpose is to hold up the flood waters of the River Laggan. Besides these three big dams 14 smaller ones are being bunt. J So tli,e waters of the mountains are being held up instead of being allowed ■to run away largely to waste. Thus controlled they will make their journey through 13 miles of mountain tunnel, then through nearly a mile of steel pipes to tlie power station to work genorators of 130,000 horse-power—the ' most powerful hydro-electric station : possible in England, Scotland, or Wales.

Incidentally it is said that Avhen the scheme is completed the water that will flow continuously through the Ben Nevis tunnel would be sufficient for the domestic needs of half the population of England and Wales. Tlie scheme, which is being carried out, bv private enterprise, lias alreadv cost four and a-half. million pounds and has provided work for thousands of hands. Permanent employment will be given to hundreds of men and women in' the factories, which will be worked by the hydro-electric power.