E.ON UK Submits Planning Application For New Coal-fired Units

E.ON UK, the company that runs Powergen, has today submitted a Section 36 application to the Government to build what will be the UK's first new coal-fired units for over 20 years.

Having submitted a scoping document for the two state-of-the-art cleaner coal 800MW units at its existing Kingsnorth power station in Kent last month, the company has now decided to apply to build the new units.

Dr Paul Golby, Chief Executive of E.ON UK, said: "Our aim is to invest for the future to change the way we approach energy in the UK.

"That means investing in new, cleaner ways to generate power, whether in large power stations such as this or in renewables, as well as by introducing new products and services for our customers.

"While many of our competitors are retro-fitting clean up kit on power stations that are over 30 years old, we want to build new, more efficient units that will set a new benchmark for cleaner coal-fired generation in the UK.

"We are the only UK power company to make a commitment to reduce the carbon intensity of our generation - by 10% by 2012¹ - and we believe that building new, state-of-the-art power stations is the best way forward for us at E.ON and for the country as a whole.

"These new units will be unlike anything we've seen in the UK before and will play a vital role in helping keep our lights on and in combating climate change in the longer term."

The new, supercritical, units would be built next to the existing four units at the station and would come on line in 2012 once they had been proven. The existing units would then be shut down and demolished.

"These new units would cut carbon emissions by millions of tonnes a year and could eventually be fitted with carbon capture kit that would enable the station to move from being simply cleaner to being genuinely clean coal."

The new units would cost around £1bn to build and could be capable of burning energy crops, called biomass, alongside coal.

They would also form part of a £4bn investment plan in the UK that includes:

* New gas-fired power stations at the Isle of Grain in Kent (which was given
   government permission in October) and at Drakelow in Derbyshire
* A feasibility study into a world-leading clean coal power station at Killingholme
   in Lincolnshire
* £1.2bn of improvements to the electricity distribution network in central England;
* Building the UK's largest dedicated biomass power station at Steven's Croft in
   Lockerbie, and
* The continuing development of around 1,300MW of wind farms, both on- and offshore.

E.ON UK is also one of the companies involved in a consortium aiming to build the world's largest wind farm - the London Array - off the Kent and Essex coasts. The 1,000MW development would be able to supply power to around a quarter of homes in Greater London.

¹ = E.ON UK has already reduced the carbon intensity of its generation by 20% since 1990

Find out more about
E.ON
E.ON UK
E.ON Renewables

Search for more E.ON News

Posted 11/12/06

Back