Le développement de la houille blanche dans les Pyrénées Occidentales - les premiers temps (1900-1925)

A term coined in the last quarter of the 19th century, "white coal" refers to the white snow or ice cover that melts and feeds mountain streams, as opposed to black coal, a mineral fuel. This comparison stems from the fact that meltwater is used to produce electrical energy via hydroelectric turbines, mechanisms that appeared in Europe in the mid-19th century thanks to the work of the Frenchmen Fourneyron, Jonval, Fontaine, and Girard, the Englishman Thomson, and the Americans Francis and Pelton, among others. From the 1880s onwards, hydroelectric power generation, initially intended for industry and then for lighting, developed considerably in the French Alps and, to a much lesser extent, in the Pyrenees. Thus, at the very beginning of the 20th century, the power output of the eighty-four facilities spread across Ariège and Basses-Pyrénées was equivalent to just over seven thousand horsepower (HP), or a very modest average of eighty-three horsepower per site... This short study sets out to explain the many reasons for this under-equipment, combining low demand for electricity due to a very small local industrial base with various "technical" (the problem of energy transport) and "natural" causes, namely the physical structure of the Pyrenees mountain range, which is less favorable to hydroelectric production. It should be noted that at the beginning of the 20th century, this issue was also of interest to a large number of very different corporations: at the first White Coal Congress, held in Grenoble in 1902, industrialists and politicians were present, as well as scientists and numerous engineers from various government departments, including Mines, Bridges and Roads, and Water and Forests. Our study is therefore in line with research focusing on the rediscovery of the Pyrenees as a place of interaction and knowledge production.