Hydro-Electric Power in Western Europe

Abstract

While the use of atomic energy for industrial purposes remains a matter for speculation and research, the need to utilize the inexhaustible supplies of motive power that are derived from falling water is being increasingly emphasized in western Europe.1 This paper is particularly concerned with recent developments in Switzerland and France. In France impoverishment resulting from the war has made imperative the conservation of internal resources of fuel and the dollar exchange shortage has restricted imports of coal and petroleum from the New World. Whereas before the war the United States of America produced 1117 kWh.2 of electricity per head per year, Switzerland generated 635 and France 433. Moreover, in spite of the early development of 'Vhouille blanche' in the French Alps,3 more than half of France's supplies of electrical current are derived from thermal stations burning high grade coal and some lignite. On her liberation France evolved, under the Monnet Plan, national schemes for the production of electricity to increase the output to 1000 kWh. per head as early as 1951. Twothirds of the increased output is to come from hydro-electric stations, the remainder to be generated in steam plants burning coal, lignite or blast furnace gas, with very little use of imported high grade coal. Most electrical undertakings have come under VElectricite de France, though private firms are responsible for the construction of new works, such as those on the Rhone, the Allier, the Dordogne and the upper Isere. Switzerland, with increased demands for electricity resulting from the war-time expansion of industry and increased transport and domestic needs, launched a ten-year plan in 1946. New hydro-electric installations are designed to restrict the import of coal to a minimum, although the need for large thermal stations in towns such as Basle and Zurich must remain. These national schemes must be considered in relation to the European Recovery Programme,4 which recommended nine new undertakings for France, Italy and the Austro-Swiss-Italian border, together with two thermal stations in Germany and a geothermic plant in the region of Vesuvius. These stations were to be completed within four years. Some schemes on a supranational scale at present being implemented are dealt with in the latter part of this paper: they bear such regional names as Eytherma, a project nearing completion in the upper Dordogne valley: Fnytrac, in the southern Auvergne and