ELECTRIC POWER IN SPAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17659, 21 December 1920, Page 7

ELECTRIC POWER IN SPAIN.

Like other countries Spain has of late had to consider the problem of her natural power resources, and has done so on a broad national basis. Spain possesses already some important hydro-electric power plants; they are situated mainly in the northern regions, on the southern slopes of. the Pyrenees and on the Ebro, and in the industrial centres of Madrid. V-alencia, and a few other districts. In the Pyrenees and in the centre, south-east from Madrid, electric power is transmitted over distances of more than 300 miles. By means of these power plants, some of which were remarkable in the days of their erection, enough had been achieved to demonstrate the great advantages and possibilities of electric power distribution, and the project which is at present under discussion in Spain goes further m a, judicious nationalisation of the country's power resources, water and coal. Ihe whole country is to be encircled and traversed by a system of electric transmission lines, and the generation and supply of electricity are to be put under State control without undue restriction of private enterprise. It is a big scheme for a country, one and a-half times as large as the United Kingdom, with less than half its population, 21,000,000 against 46,000.000. The Kingdom of Spain, apart from the relatively small Mediterranean Islands, forms a big continental square, a considerable portion oi which is of plateau character with a severe continental climate and a very sparse population. Both water power and coal are concentrated in the north and are found in more isolated spots dotted all over the kingdom; the scheme is thus far bolder than it would be for an industrially highly-developed insular country, such as England, the midland counties of which are not far' from the sea and the natural resources of which are more -evenly distributed.