Hydropower in Taiwan...Ming Jian edition

One little side interest I've taken up is with the water resource infrastructure here. Ming Jian, the town I live in, is next to Taiwan's largest river. The rivers here look much different. They are short, wide, and strewn with boulders and rocks. And they are relatively empty. Most of the time. But when the typhoons come and tremendous amounts of rain are dumped on the mountains those rivers funnel that water away. Taiwan has built up an extensive hydroelectric infrastructure. East of Ming Jian is the Jiji weir. It does a few different things. It directly pipes part of the Jhoushuei river to an industrial park on the coast. It sets up a great deal of irrigation to the west. And it pulls off some water to run the Ming Jian power station. The station is separated from the weir by a few miles. That's an organization that I hadn't thought much about before I ran into it here. It has some wonderful virtues though. The channel is the perfect place for me to run with Bagels in the morning. It's long and quiet. She loves going off the leash. A bit more objectively, severing the dam/weir from the power station removes the need for a large body of stagnant water that we normally associate with large dams. When the water flows in a more natural manner traditional problems of standing water diminish. The water harbors fewer harmful species and diseases. Sedimentation is reduced which is good for the new infrastructure and the downstream farms and coast. Here, they channel the water a few miles away to a place where they can take advantage of a suitable elevation drop. They set up the station at the bottom of the hill. I'm trying to learn more about generating capacities so I can make a more accurate assessment of the virtues and vices of the different models. I'll let you know what I find out.