It’s a sad day when a search on ‘Ratcliffe’ only brings up Manchester United. For some of us, it means the end of a great era. Ratcliffe Power Station officially closed today marking the UK’s total withdrawal from the coal-fired energy market.
Ratcliffe is an industrial landmark with an historical commitment to clean energy, being the only UK power station with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) emission control facility and a Flue-Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) plant. This meant that Ratcliffe met the environmental standards in the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) and was reckoned to be the cleanest coal burning power plant in Europe. It was a hard act to follow so no-one did.
True, of late it’s only been delivering a minute fraction of our energy demand but as someone commented, those majestic 375 ft cooling towers are like the Stonehenge of the 20th century. Let’s hope they’re left standing as a national heritage monument that in 1,000 years, humankind will be left to marvel at the technology of their predecessors to be able to produce such wonders, and even more, to be left guessing for another 1,000 years whatever they were used for!
If you’ve read this far and think you know what the photo is, go ahead and comment – first correct answer gets a Terry’s chocolate orange.
#seeusfordust #powerstation #ratcliffe #cleanenergy
That's wonderful to see! What kind of lunch did they make for the Boys & Girls Club?