From Kate Moulin.
DURING our lifetime great men pass us by without us realising their full potential.

And Ben Quérée’s Saturday Interview with Mike Liston (JEP, 25 October) brought to mind my husband’s uncle, Evan (Taff) Will-iams, who was an apprentice at 14 to T G Le Cappelain, which I believe was the first company to supply electricity to Jersey.

He later moved to the Jersey Electricity Company, but left Jersey in 1940 to avoid the Occupation and moved to Wales, to a factory in Rogerston which specialised in recycling aluminium from damaged aircraft shot down during the war.

When he and his family returned to Jersey in 1945, they lived with his wife’s extended family on a farm in St Lawrence, where he installed a dynamo operated by wind power generating enough electricity not only to supply their living accommodation but also all the outbuildings. This was possibly the only such installation in the Island at that time.

When he retired from the JEC after more than 40 years service, he reflected on the years he had spent in Wales during the war, and in particular the factory where he had worked. I quote from one of his written papers: ‘During 1940-1945, I had the privilege of being a member of a team of electricians engaged in the installation of electrically powered hydraulics, and the responsibility for its operation.’

It seems from papers and drawings still with his family that he became completely immersed in his belief in tidal power and hydrodynamics.

Together with his friend and colleague Arthur Tarr, he spent a considerable number of hours researching and deliberating on the subject. His papers and drawings are too complicated and extensive for me as a lay person to relay to you in one small article, but the message is there.

They had the foresight and intelligence to put their findings on paper, even visiting sites like the Rance Barrage, the construction of which Evan thought ‘had a wasteful direct energy exchange’ (not being used to its full potential, I presume).

They also had meetings with the JEC, but nothing ever came of it. Their ideas were probably too sophisticated and ahead of the times. The areas they had in mind were St Aubin’s Bay and the site west of the Albert Pier, and perhaps these areas were too politically sensitive.

With ever-growing demand for oil and dwindling reserves, it is most unlikely that we shall ever see cheap oil again. Wind turbines have not proved to be popular in Jersey, and now the French have brought an end to our cheap nuc-lear energy.

Had the Island adopted the marine energy proposals suggested by Evan and Art-hur some 25 years ago, and now envisaged by Mike Liston, we would not be looking at a 24% increase in our electricity bills as from 1 January.

In Evan’s article for the JEP at the time, he said: ‘Nature has provided us with a unique and massive tidal flow . . . waiting to be developed.’

What a waste. Evan ought to be here today, working with Mike Lis-ton, bringing his ideas to fruition — all the know-ledge he amassed in his life. Toge-ther they could make the Island self-sufficient in power by 2020.
4 Helier, Les Van-niers, Route de
St Aubin, St Helier.