UK’s Cottam coal-fired power station closes after 50 years of operation

• 4 years ago (2019-10-01)
• David Flin

Coal 274 Europe 1061

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The 2000MW coal-fired Cottam power station in the UK has ceased operation. The owner of the plant, EDF Energy , said that the reason for the closure was “challenging market conditions”, with all of the UK’s coal-fired power stations scheduled for closure by 2025. It added that many of the 300-strong workforce had either moved to the nearby West Burton power plant or to other areas within the company.

EDF said that the coal-fired West Burton Power Station had contracts in place to run for at least another two years.

The closure of Cottam leaves six major coal-fired stations working in the UK: West Burton, Ratcliffe, both in Nottinghamshire, Drax in Yorkshire, Fiddlers Ferry in Cheshire, Aberthaw in the Vale of Glamorgan, and Kilroot in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The UK Government announced in 2015 that all coal-fired power stations should be closed when they could be replaced by cleaner gas-fired plants, and by 2025 at the latest.