Ironbridge Power Station
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Ironbridge 'B' Power Station (also known as Buildwas Power Station) is the second of two coal fired power stations that have occupied a site in Shropshire, England.
The power station lies in Buildwas parish, in Shrewsbury and Atcham borough. It is on the banks of the River Severn near the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site, where the Industrial Revolution began.
Ironbridge was first selected to be the site of a large modern ‘Super Station,’ by the West Midlands Joint Electricity Authority, in February 1927, on land earlier identified by Walsall Borough as being suitable for power generation in 1924 [1]. The proximity of the River Severn and several railway lines provided excellent access to both cooling water, and a source of coal; whilst the flat land formed by fluvial processes at the end of the last ice-age [2], was ideal for the construction of a large turbine hall.
Construction of the first Ironbridge Power Station, later to be christened Ironbridge ‘A’, began in 1929, and the first phase was completed in 1932. The full generating capacity of Ironbridge ‘A’ was not realised until major expansions and the commissioning of extra boilers and generating sets had been reached in 1939, for a total output of 200 Mega Watts.[1] Ironbridge 'A' ceased generating in 1981, and was demolished in 1983.
Ironbridge ‘A’ could not cope with the increasing demand for electricity after the war, and so it was decided by the Central Electricity Generating Board, that a new, larger, 1000 MW station, christened Ironbridge ‘B’, would be constructed alongside Ironbridge ‘A’. Parliamentary approval was sought and granted in 1962, and construction began in 1963, with plans to begin generating electricity in 1967. Due to construction delays, the implementation of improvements that had been pioneered during the construction of similar stations using the new 500 MW units, and some limited industrial action, Ironbridge ‘B’ finally began feeding power into the national grid on the 11th June 1969. Full capacity was not reached until the second 500 MW unit began generating in February 1970 [1]. In 1990 the CEGB was split into different companies for privatisation and Buildwas power station became part of Powergen. In 2001 Powergen was taken over by E.ON, an energy company based in Germany.
Project architect Alan Clark, worked closely with landscape architect Kenneth Booth in order that the station merge as seamlessly as possible into its natural surroundings [1], and in this respect it is unique amongst British coal fired stations. When viewed from Ironbridge, the surroundings of the station are hidden by wooded hills, and the cooling towers have deliberately been constructed from concrete to which a red pigment was added (at a cost of £11'000 in the 1960s) to blend with the colour of the local soil. The towers cannot be seen at all from the world famous landmark, the Iron Bridge. The chimney stands 671 ft (204 metres) high, and is the tallest structure in Shropshire, taller than the Blackpool Tower and London's BT Tower.
The Turbine Hall is decoratively clad in chipped granite faced concrete panels, aluminium sheeting, and glass. The hall obscures the rather more functional metal clad boiler house from view. A free-standing administration block continues the theme of concrete panelling; albeit with extensive use made of large floor to ceiling windows [1]. Period fittings within the administration block include a board room, containing murals that reference the industries of the Ironbridge Gorge, and a grand entrance hall with an interesting metallic mural.
So impressive were the measures taken to ensure that the power station was an asset to the gorge, and not an eyesore, that it was short listed for a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors/Times conservation award in 1973. [1]
The 970 MWe coal fired power station is the only major generator of electricity in Shropshire. The plant consumes about 1.2 million tonnes of coal, 48,000 tonnes of biomass and 20,000 tonnes of oil per year and generated 2,990 GWh of electricity in 2004.[3]
Approximately 3000-6000 tonnes a day of coal is delivered to the power station via a branch line railway through Madeley, Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale, crossing the River Severn via the grade 2 listed Albert Edward Bridge. The railway branch joins the Wolverhampton - Shrewsbury main railway line at Madeley Junction. Passenger services on the branch line were withdrawn in the 1960's and it is kept open solely to carry coal to the power station. However, the Telford Steam Railway have aspirations to take over one of the tracks between the power station and Lightmoor junction as part of their southern extension from Horsehay through Doseley.
Environmental group Friends of the Earth claim that it is presently (2006) the second worst polluter in the United Kingdom per mega-watt output. [4]
According to [5] the power station is expected to close by 2015.
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[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Stratton, M. 1994. Ironbridge and the Electric Revolution, John Murray Publishing
- ^ Toghill, P. 1990. Geology in Shropshire, Swan Hill Press
- ^ Shropshire County Council (2005)
- ^ Carbon Dinosaurs. Friends of the Earth. Archived from the original on 2004-10-19.
- ^ Memorandum submitted by Mitsui Babcock to the House of Commons
