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First Japan, from Kyoto
Completion of hydraulic power station included in canal plan
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| Added to the Canal Project, the First Hydroelectric
Power Station was Completed in 1891 |
Keage Power Station (1890's) |
In 1891, Keage Power Station was completed and started to transmit electricity.
This was the first hydroelectric power generation project in Japan. Lake Biwa
Canal Project which was unprecedented in scale and facilitated the modernization
of Kyoto was to build a new canal connecting Kyoto with Lake Biwa. At first, in
view of the then technological level of Japan, many people considered it an ill-advised
plan. The Project was designed and supervised by Sakuro Tanabe, young engineer
who had just graduated from Kobu Daigakko or University of Engineering (the forerunner
of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo).
In 1888, in the midst of the construction of the Canal, Tanabe went to America
soon after he read an article on the first hydroelectric power plant in the world
which had just started to operate in Colorado, USA. With the know-how about the
hydroelectric power generation brought back from the United States, he added the
construction of a hydroelectric power plant to Lake Biwa Canal Project.
Young Tanabe's abilities and many other people's efforts had materialized Keage
Power Station. As a motive power, it has contributed to the development of the
industry in Kyoto. After more than a hundred years, the Power Station is still
working just as before. |
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Here : Toppage > Kyoto as Historical city > First Japan, from Kyoto >
Completion of hydraulic power station included in canal plan
