"The Wulai Township Hydroelectric station
Walking along the Lover’s Path in Wulai that runs along the Nanshi River, amidst the gorgeous backdrop of soaring mountains and the blue-green river itself, sticking out like a sore thumb is a large white hydroelectric power station.
Owned and operatee by Taiwan Power Company (TaiPower), I’m not entirely sure when the Wulai hydroelectric power station was built but funding for it seems to have been secured in 1950.
Sun Yan-suan, chief engineer of TaiPower at the time, secured a $2 million USD loan from US company Westinghouse and some of that money went towards building the Wulai station.
I’m not sure how much power the Wulai hydroelectric station produces (it’d be interesting to see how much of Wulai’s power is generated by it), because there doesn’t appear to be all that much information regarding the station online (at least not in English).
Personally I quite like the idea of hydroelectric power. Potential farming and agricultural issues aside, something about watching water rush through the Wulai station just fascinated me. Although chaotic in nature itself, I find rushing water deeply relaxing for some reason.
I should have been paying attention to the Lover’s Path but between me and you, I’d have been just as happy standing on the opposite bank of the Nanshi River just watching water rush through the station…
February 23rd, 2012 at 12:00 am mike(Quote)
There isn’t much in Chinese either, but the power rating will likely be a few tens of kW (i.e. not much).
February 23rd, 2012 at 11:22 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Thanks for looking Mike.
Although not much larger than a house are the larger damst typical in producing not much power for their size?
There’s three or so other ones on the Nanshi River leading back to Taipei. Dunno if they’re used to provide power or not though.
February 28th, 2012 at 5:18 pm mike(Quote)
I thought I was banned. Anyway…
Well the power rating will vary according to volume and rate of water flow on the one hand, and the age and design of the generator on the other hand, but if it’s on an upstream river, then the power rating won’t amount to much.
Of the three dam pictures in that post you link to, the first seems to be a weir rather than a dam – it’ll most likely have been built in order to house a water guage (i.e. to record changes in the volume of water over time). On looking at the third picture it’s hard to tell what the neighbouring buildings are and whether there is a transformer station or not. It may be that those dams are connected to water diversion channels.
Later in the summer, I will drive up to the Deji (德基) reservoir in Taichung County to have a look at the dam which was specifically built for electricity production rather than irrigation. Right now I’m waiting for the weather to change so I can go back out to the dams down here in the south for more photography.