This place had sentimental meaning to me as my grandad worked here all his years and I had been dying to get inside since I took up exploring. It’s only 20 mins away from me so bugged me for a long time of how to get in. Thanks so much to Brewtal for taking me along. Your a star my friend.
History taken from power stations web site.
At the time of opening in the early 1970s Longannet was the largest power station in Europe with a capacity of 2,400 MW. Designed by Scottish architects Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall & Partners, construction began in 1965 on land reclaimed from the Firth of Forth using ash from the Kincardine power station. The first electricity was generated in 1970 and the station was running at full capacity by 1973 once construction of all units was complete.
Longannet consumed up to 4.5million tonnes of coal per year. The coal was originally supplied via conveyors directly from the nearby Longannet Colliery until its closure in 2002. After that time coal was delivered via rail or road to the station’s coal store which could hold two million tonnes.
Each of the four front-wall-fired boilers, manufactured by Foster Wheeler John Brown, would burn 250 tonnes of coal per hour at full load. Fuel was fed to the boilers from 8 Pulverised Fuel Mills per boiler, each capable of processing 40 tonnes of coal per hour. Each boiler provided around 1,800 tonnes per hour of steam at a pressure of 168 bars and a temperature of 568°C to the turbo-generator sets. The four English Electric turbine sets were each arranged in two lines with a cross-compound arrangement, driving 8 x 300 MW GEC turbo generators.
Cooling water was drawn from the Firth of Forth a rate of 327,000 cubic metres per hour. Longannet did not have any cooling towers, instead discharging its cooling water into a mile long cooling channel, where heat was dissipated before the water reached a wide part of the Forth.
In 1994, the station received European funding to retrofit one of the generating units with equipment to reduce the emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide. This was achieved by injecting natural gas into the boiler. In 1996 the remaining three units were retrofitted, reducing the station’s emissions of nitrogen oxides by 40 percent. These works were expected to extend the useful life of Longannet Power Station until 2020.
In 2003 Longannet was identified as Scotland’s largest source of pollution. The power station closed in 2016 after 46 years of producing electricity. The closure marked the end of coal-fired generation in Scotland.
Since closure they have been slowly demolishing it, in fact there was a demo soon after we were there. I read that there may be a train factory being built there after it’s all been demolished. A company have put a bid in for this end of last year.
The explore
Went with Brewtal and 2 of his friends on this one and had an amazing few hours. Although massive rookie mistake! Had forgotten to charge my camera battery and discovered as soon as we arrived and start setting up, so only got a few pics which were rushed!! I now have another 2 batteries and will not make that mistake again lol. Never got any externals as my camera had long died!
History taken from power stations web site.
At the time of opening in the early 1970s Longannet was the largest power station in Europe with a capacity of 2,400 MW. Designed by Scottish architects Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall & Partners, construction began in 1965 on land reclaimed from the Firth of Forth using ash from the Kincardine power station. The first electricity was generated in 1970 and the station was running at full capacity by 1973 once construction of all units was complete.
Longannet consumed up to 4.5million tonnes of coal per year. The coal was originally supplied via conveyors directly from the nearby Longannet Colliery until its closure in 2002. After that time coal was delivered via rail or road to the station’s coal store which could hold two million tonnes.
Each of the four front-wall-fired boilers, manufactured by Foster Wheeler John Brown, would burn 250 tonnes of coal per hour at full load. Fuel was fed to the boilers from 8 Pulverised Fuel Mills per boiler, each capable of processing 40 tonnes of coal per hour. Each boiler provided around 1,800 tonnes per hour of steam at a pressure of 168 bars and a temperature of 568°C to the turbo-generator sets. The four English Electric turbine sets were each arranged in two lines with a cross-compound arrangement, driving 8 x 300 MW GEC turbo generators.
Cooling water was drawn from the Firth of Forth a rate of 327,000 cubic metres per hour. Longannet did not have any cooling towers, instead discharging its cooling water into a mile long cooling channel, where heat was dissipated before the water reached a wide part of the Forth.
In 1994, the station received European funding to retrofit one of the generating units with equipment to reduce the emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide. This was achieved by injecting natural gas into the boiler. In 1996 the remaining three units were retrofitted, reducing the station’s emissions of nitrogen oxides by 40 percent. These works were expected to extend the useful life of Longannet Power Station until 2020.
In 2003 Longannet was identified as Scotland’s largest source of pollution. The power station closed in 2016 after 46 years of producing electricity. The closure marked the end of coal-fired generation in Scotland.
Since closure they have been slowly demolishing it, in fact there was a demo soon after we were there. I read that there may be a train factory being built there after it’s all been demolished. A company have put a bid in for this end of last year.
The explore
Went with Brewtal and 2 of his friends on this one and had an amazing few hours. Although massive rookie mistake! Had forgotten to charge my camera battery and discovered as soon as we arrived and start setting up, so only got a few pics which were rushed!! I now have another 2 batteries and will not make that mistake again lol. Never got any externals as my camera had long died!