Ardnacrusha

The Shannon hydro-electric scheme was constructed between 1925 and 1929 to harness the power of the river where it underwent a fall of nearly 35 metres in the final stages of its route to tidal waters at Limerick. The civil engineering works were undertaken by the German company Siemens-Schuckertwerke and on completion the power station at Ardnacrusha was the largest hydro-electric generating plant in the world. Initially there were three vertical shaft Francis turbine generators installed and in 1934 a single vertical shaft Kalan turbine generator was added, giving a total output of 85mw from an average head of 28.5 metres.