WEST BURTON POWER STATION
THE HISTORY:
Yet another coal-fired power station eating the dust in 21st century Britain, West Burton’s legacy is a familiar site to those acquainted with the demise of UK coal and fossil fuelled power in general. Commissioned in 1966, West Burton A powered the nation for 57 years until its closure in 2023 in line with the government’s commitment to net-zero by 2050.
The current owners (EDF) have operated the station since 2001 when they bought it off TXU Energy, but going back far enough shows this station was first operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board from its commission in 1966 until 1990.
Constructed primarily by Alfred McAlpine (a major construction firm at the time), West Burton was something of a phenomenon at the time, being the first 2000 MW power station to be built in the UK, with each of the four turbines generating 500 MW.
THE EXPLORE:
Pulling up at 1am like a sneaky link, @UrbandonedTeam, a surprise @jtza and I descended upon the lowering power station determined to penetrate the seemingly unwilling razor-wire topped fence. Upon approaching the fence, I had no feelings except that of determination. In that moment there is no room for daunt, tiredness, anxiousness or any of the above and sure enough we were past the fence and into EDF’s lair in no time.
Despite being only a few hundred metres from the colossal cooling towers, the feeling of approaching them can only be likened to a pilgrim walking on a perpetual treadmill; no matter how close the place of worship appears on the horizon, it gets no closer to the settler.
Upon completing the lengthy trek, we the Crusaders had made it to the other side of the Red Sea and were met now with an ever more daunting task: entering the power station undetected. Our previous efforts had immediately been dwarfed by the length of the coal conveyors we had to traverse and the expedition ahead of us would make the trail from Nazareth look like a walk in the park.
The power station lowered over us with its infinite monolithic majesty.
The power plant boasted four in-line 500 MW turbines.
The gantry crane helped us hide from various workers on the turbine hall floor.
We sped through the turbine hall floor in order to avoid detection from the numerous cameras and workers prowling about.
Signs of decommissioning were starting to show, though the work done was minor.
Getting West Burton done felt like a huge success at the time and it was easy to tell how recently the station had closed, not just due to the lights being on and little signs of decommissioning, but also because of the noises the turbines were making. I’m not an electrical nor mechanical engineer, but I believe the constant noises being made both in the main hall and the boiler house are the machines being flushed out with steam to clean before the full decommissioning process starts.
The experience from start to finish was fantastic, running into various characters along the way in the site, including @Olkka . Thanks to all involved and I’ll see you in the next one…
THE HISTORY:
Yet another coal-fired power station eating the dust in 21st century Britain, West Burton’s legacy is a familiar site to those acquainted with the demise of UK coal and fossil fuelled power in general. Commissioned in 1966, West Burton A powered the nation for 57 years until its closure in 2023 in line with the government’s commitment to net-zero by 2050.
The current owners (EDF) have operated the station since 2001 when they bought it off TXU Energy, but going back far enough shows this station was first operated by the Central Electricity Generating Board from its commission in 1966 until 1990.
Constructed primarily by Alfred McAlpine (a major construction firm at the time), West Burton was something of a phenomenon at the time, being the first 2000 MW power station to be built in the UK, with each of the four turbines generating 500 MW.
THE EXPLORE:
Pulling up at 1am like a sneaky link, @UrbandonedTeam, a surprise @jtza and I descended upon the lowering power station determined to penetrate the seemingly unwilling razor-wire topped fence. Upon approaching the fence, I had no feelings except that of determination. In that moment there is no room for daunt, tiredness, anxiousness or any of the above and sure enough we were past the fence and into EDF’s lair in no time.
Despite being only a few hundred metres from the colossal cooling towers, the feeling of approaching them can only be likened to a pilgrim walking on a perpetual treadmill; no matter how close the place of worship appears on the horizon, it gets no closer to the settler.
Upon completing the lengthy trek, we the Crusaders had made it to the other side of the Red Sea and were met now with an ever more daunting task: entering the power station undetected. Our previous efforts had immediately been dwarfed by the length of the coal conveyors we had to traverse and the expedition ahead of us would make the trail from Nazareth look like a walk in the park.
The power station lowered over us with its infinite monolithic majesty.
The power plant boasted four in-line 500 MW turbines.
The gantry crane helped us hide from various workers on the turbine hall floor.
We sped through the turbine hall floor in order to avoid detection from the numerous cameras and workers prowling about.
Signs of decommissioning were starting to show, though the work done was minor.
Getting West Burton done felt like a huge success at the time and it was easy to tell how recently the station had closed, not just due to the lights being on and little signs of decommissioning, but also because of the noises the turbines were making. I’m not an electrical nor mechanical engineer, but I believe the constant noises being made both in the main hall and the boiler house are the machines being flushed out with steam to clean before the full decommissioning process starts.
The experience from start to finish was fantastic, running into various characters along the way in the site, including @Olkka . Thanks to all involved and I’ll see you in the next one…
