CHEAPER POWER FROM TIDES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3352, 20 December 1926, Page 7

CHEAPER POWER FROM TIDES.

BRITAIN WATCHING EXPERIMENTS. Experiments of harnessing 1 the tides, shortly to be made on a large scale at Abor-Vrach in Brittany, which are expected to result in a constant supply of electricity of 3800 horse-power, will be watched with keen interest in Britain, where for years past schemes have been discussed but never carried to fruition on any important scale. “There is enough force in the tides to light and heat the whole country and to run all its railways. It is running to waste while we are bellowing for coal,’ 1 wrote the late Sir Frederick Treves years ago. His words, on the face of a five months’ coal strike, appeal with special force to-day. There is evidence from many quarters that the subject, in connection with the cognate question of the utilisaion of water power generally, will shortly come again to the front, and that tangible results will follow. Recent utterances by Air Baldwin and other Cabinet Ministers on the necessity of utilising cheaper power for industrial purposes are among the straws which show which way the wind is blowing. The Water Bower Resources Committee. which issued its final report in 1921, recommended the appointment of a special commission to deal with the utilisation of tidal power. A commission was appointed and is understood to bo still considering the question. The rapid progress that is being made with the work of harnessing the power of the Shannon in Ireland will also.have its effect in directing public attention to the tremendous power running to waste every day by the rise and fall of tides and' the flow of our rivers. The Severn barrage scheme is not dead. A sub-committee has reported •at a pritna facie case has been established for further investigations, and those are now going on. This scheme of enormous proportions. .It was originally Tie vised by the A! inistry of Transport under Sir Eric Geddes. A barrage costing £25,000,000 is to he thrown across the Bristol Channel. It would control such enormous tidal power that it is calculated that it would produce 500,000 horse-power during a 10-hour day. as compared wih the 385.500 horse-power meliorated by Niagara. It would save 3,000.000 tons of coal a year, and its construction would give work to 2-50,000 men tor seven years. The tide would rise through gigantic sluice doors, which at full tide would automatically close, and the vast force of the imprisoned water would, as the tide fell, drive the turbines' and provide power for South Wales, the West of England, the Midlands, and even Condon.