Hydro-Electric Power as a By-Product of Agricultural Storage

The recent marked advance in the art of building high dams has made available a new source of power-a by-product of the release of water to satisfy an irrigation demand. These by-product power developments have characteristics peculiar to themselves, most important of which is the remarkable way in which the output curve follows the demand curve of adjacent irrigated areas requiring power for pumping. The ultimate amount of power that will be available from these plants will govern the agricultural development of areas which would be without water supply if it were not for this relatively cheap and abundant source of power for pumping. This paper further presents some of the unusual problems in the marketing of this power toward the solution of which little progress has yet been made, and some of the dangers connected with this type of development which should be recognized and guarded against.