TIDAL POWER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 109, 9 May 1924, Page 7

TIDAL POWER

SEVERN BARRAGE SCHEME

GOVERNMENT APPROVES

PRINCIPLE.

(UNITED; FRBSS ASSOCIATION.— COPIRIQHT.)

(AUSTUAU4N-NEW ZEALAND CABE.B' ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, Bth May. - Mr. T. Shaw, Minister of Labour, at a meeting of tho Parliamentary Labour s Party, stated that if a favourable report were forthcoming from the. Committee now investigating1 the proposal to build a barrage across the river Severn, at a cost of £25,000,000, fov the purpose of generating electrical power, the Government would facilitate the carrying out of the scheme.

The proposal to construct a barrage across the Severn? is one- of a number of plans for utilising the tidal flow in tho estuaries of British rivers. Britain has few rivers which offer good opportunities for hydro-electric development, but (the large, rise and fall of the tides and the great extent of the estuaries produce an enormous flow of water in and out of the.river mouths, and a vast EUPPIy of power is' in sight, though it is very difficult to utilise it except at great, cost.-The Severn project, in simple terms, is to construct a wall across the_ river; with gates in it, through which the water will flow to great turbines. These turbines will, .of course,' only run intermittently, and "\vill be used to pump water to an inland lake. .This-water will in turn be used to drive electrical generators. The scheme is thus a method of \ storing the intermittent supply of tidal power so that it can ,'oe drawn upon continuously.