IRELAND’S INDUSTRIES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 December 1928, Page 11

IRELAND’S INDUSTRIES

TRELAND’S great need has long been for cheap power to take the place of imported coal, and the 'Shannon electricity scheme is the first bold, wellplanned attempt to meet this need. To-day, huge red-painted electric standards stretch spider-like from the Shannon works, covering the country with a network of cables through which it is confidently predicted that next year the industries .and towns of the Free State wili .be supplied with light, heat, and power. Previous schemes for. utilising the water power of the Shannon have come to nothing because of the natural difficulties. The problem facing the engineers was to get a continuous fall of sufficient \olume, summer and winter, to maintain a constant- supply qt power. The Shannon is a river of variable flow. It fluctuates from 1,600,000 cubic feet in winter to 75,000 cubic leet in summer. Three lakes—Lough Derg, Lough Bee and Lough Alien —are. natural reservoirs, which can be drawn on to maintain the water supply. From Lough Derg to Limerick the Shannon flows in a winding course of some 30 miles, gradually dropping about 100 feet-. The head race for the power development has been planned l to- begin where the water level of Lough Derg can be retained with the least effort. In, the present “partial development ’ scheme, only Lough Derg will be required for water storage. But in the “mrther development” which is anticipated to be readied by 1937, Lough Bee and Lough Allen will be used, while in the “final development” the storage capacity of the three lakes will be more than quadrupled by artificially raising the level of lough Derg about seven feet. The weir and the intake budding are situated about four miles from Killaloe The intake building is a massive wail of reinforced concrete set at an angle to the river. Three pierced openings will admit the water to the head race. There is a smaller opening for navigation. Boats going from Limerick to Killaloe will be able to proceed direct through the head race and the tail race bv means of a lock instead of by devious ways of river and canal. The weir will restrain the Shannon

GIANT POWER SCHEME

from entering its natural bed, and will help to raise the upstream water level by some 25 feet, Six great sluice gates will regulate tlie outflow. Owing to the elevation of the water level, low-lying ground up the river will be flooded except where protective embankments are built. A fish pass will be provided in the weir to enable salmon to'reach Lough Derg. Some 4009 men are employed on the works, and of these over 400 are Germans. Close by is a small German village of wooden huts, gaily curtained, with flowers on the windows. Faircomplexioned, flaxen-haired women may be seen swinging sturdily across the Irish mountain side passing from one hut to another. The canal bed* has been cut through the hills —the tail race for the most part being cut through solid, rock. Caterpillar excavators crawl up the side. The town of Limerick is used to the sullen boom of the blasting. Notice boards in German are frequefit, and trucks ' bearing the legend “Krupps” or “Siemen’s Bauuniori” rumble up and down. The strange mechanical “banker” weighs 250 tons. It keeps two mechanical diggers working at full capacity to supply its needs. This machine, brought over; from Germany in sections, is busy making the bank of the huge canal, smoothing the side, picking up sand and gravel with one continuous pull. The centre of all tlie work is the great power-house at Ardnacrushna, where each of the turbines will generate electricity to the extent of 30,000 horse-power. AVhen the scheme is working, 105 tons of water a second will enter each intake pipe, and the bearing will carry a total weight of 502 tons, which is the greatest known strain any sijlgle bearing has to stand.

After the work has been completed, the water will trickle slowly in oyer a period of three months, during which time the bed of the canal will settle. Searching tests will be made lor leakages. Then, in October or November next year, driven by Shannon power, electric lights will blaze and the. wheels of industry hum throughout Ireland.