Willington Power Stations A and B were coal fired and operated from 1959 until final closure in 1999. 5 cooling towers remain and are a smidgen over 300ft high and are a landmark.
It is customary to include a history but I am feeling lazy and this is already covered by many better reports than mine, please see one such example including excellent drone pics, please read MrBudge's excellent report https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/willington-cooling-towers-derby-september-2021.131887/
Instead - I'd like to wonder about the future of the site, in particular the 5 cooling towers
Calon Energy owned the site after decommissioning of the A and B stations. They had hoped to build a gas-fired power station similar to Didcott B and they obtained financial backing from Australian investment company Macquarie but things fell flat and ownership of the site was sold on to RWE nPower
"...In 2005, RWE nPower filed a planning application to build 1,000 houses (200 affordable), 10,000 sq m of space for new businesses, a food store, shops, community hall, health facilities, family restaurant, extension to Findern County School and a vast amount of community open space including a public park and nature reserves..." But this was opposed Source: https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/burton/two-decades-what-happening-willington-3141094
RWE nPower filed an application 2010 to build a gas fired power station. The format is 400 magawatt open cycle (pretty much like a gas powered aircraft jet-engine spinning generators for electricity rather than a plane) Not very efficient as the heat of the exhaust is lost as turbine exhaust is direct to the air but they are fast response and used to balance peaks in grid demand. I have some familiarity of these from Didcot B where the turbine hall is a big shed but not of the scale of traditional power stations, the cooling required are a bank of fans more like giant sized air-conditioning and not the old cooling towers. In addition to the rapid generation capability a more standard 2,000 megawatt gas-fired closed cycle gas-turbine power station is also planned on site.
Plans were approved 2011 (including permission to demolish the 5 cooling towers) but demolition and construction is on hold until RWE nPower have gained contracts for electricity supply. You don't spend millions building a power station and then hope someone will buy the electricity and for a reasonable price. Supply contracts have not been agreed and with the rising cost of gas due to Russia's war in Europe it looks unlikely in the immediate future, so demolition plans are approved... but on hold as at June 2022, pending supply contracts at favourable rates.
The future is uncertain!
It is customary to include a history but I am feeling lazy and this is already covered by many better reports than mine, please see one such example including excellent drone pics, please read MrBudge's excellent report https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/willington-cooling-towers-derby-september-2021.131887/
Instead - I'd like to wonder about the future of the site, in particular the 5 cooling towers
Calon Energy owned the site after decommissioning of the A and B stations. They had hoped to build a gas-fired power station similar to Didcott B and they obtained financial backing from Australian investment company Macquarie but things fell flat and ownership of the site was sold on to RWE nPower
"...In 2005, RWE nPower filed a planning application to build 1,000 houses (200 affordable), 10,000 sq m of space for new businesses, a food store, shops, community hall, health facilities, family restaurant, extension to Findern County School and a vast amount of community open space including a public park and nature reserves..." But this was opposed Source: https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/burton/two-decades-what-happening-willington-3141094
RWE nPower filed an application 2010 to build a gas fired power station. The format is 400 magawatt open cycle (pretty much like a gas powered aircraft jet-engine spinning generators for electricity rather than a plane) Not very efficient as the heat of the exhaust is lost as turbine exhaust is direct to the air but they are fast response and used to balance peaks in grid demand. I have some familiarity of these from Didcot B where the turbine hall is a big shed but not of the scale of traditional power stations, the cooling required are a bank of fans more like giant sized air-conditioning and not the old cooling towers. In addition to the rapid generation capability a more standard 2,000 megawatt gas-fired closed cycle gas-turbine power station is also planned on site.
Plans were approved 2011 (including permission to demolish the 5 cooling towers) but demolition and construction is on hold until RWE nPower have gained contracts for electricity supply. You don't spend millions building a power station and then hope someone will buy the electricity and for a reasonable price. Supply contracts have not been agreed and with the rising cost of gas due to Russia's war in Europe it looks unlikely in the immediate future, so demolition plans are approved... but on hold as at June 2022, pending supply contracts at favourable rates.
The future is uncertain!
Last edited:
