HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19261, 27 August 1924, Page 7

HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

THE SEVERN BARRAGE. ENGINEERS TO REPORT. Frees Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, August 25. The Government has appointed an influential committee of engineers and surveyors to report on Sir E. Geddes's Severn hydro-electric project, which has previously been held up on account of the enormous cost. It involves tho construction of a concrete dam two miles long adjacent to the junction of the River Wye with the Severn. The scheme is estimated to develop hall a million horsepower.—A. and N.Z. Cable. Mr T. Shaw, Minister of Labour, at a. meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, in May last, stated that if a favourble report were forthcoming from the committee now investigating the proposal to build a barrage across the River Severn, at a cost of £25,000,000 for the purpose of generating electrical power, the Government would facilitate the carrying out of the scheme. The proposal is one of a number of plans for utilising tho tidal flow in ihc estuaries of British rivers. The Severn project, in simple terras, 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 will be used to pump water to an inland lake. This water in turn will be used to drive electrical generators. The scheme is thus a method of storing the intermittent supply of tidal power so that it can be drawn upon continuously.