HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1919, Page 8

HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER.

GREAT FRENCH PROJECT. j HARNESSING THE RHONE. France has resolved to exploit the large J possibilities of the Rhone, her greatest river. Conflicting interests have been reconciled and the benefit* so distributed that the estimated cost of £100,000,000 can be provided by the beneficiaries, including the State. The projected works, which extend from Geneva to a point a few miles north of Tarascon, will take many years to complete, but each successive stage will be self-supporting. The three main objects of the scheme are the improvement of transport, the production of electric power, and irrigation. When the locks and deviations have been made, barges of 1200 tons will be able to pass from the Mediterranean to Geneva by Lyons. The Rhone valley will resume its ancient claim to; be one of the great highways of Europe. It appears that no extensive works are contemplated below Tarascon, and the river is already navigable for heavy barges from that point to the desolate, but well-equipped, Port Louis du Rhone. The total fall from Geneva to the sea is over 1000 ft, and it is calculated that the utilisation of this water power will produce as much electricity as would come from 5,000,000 tons of coal. There are to be 19 generating stations of from 200,000 to 25,000 horse-power for lighting, heating, and factories, each station supplying an erea proportionate to its power. Lyons and Marseilles and the P.L.M. Railway will be the largest consumers. Irrigation on a very large scale will become possible. Vast regions with producy tive soil and kindly climate require only water to turn them from arid sterility to plenty. The benefits obtained in the valley of the Durance will he repeated in the great plains of the Camargue and the Crau.