#ratcliffe #nottingham #powerstation
The UK’s last coal-fired power station will close its doors for the final time today (30th September) ending over 140 years of coal-fired generation in the UK.
Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, near Nottingham UK, which started generating in 1967, will officially end generation at midnight – marking a key milestone in the UK’s journey to cleaner power. Employees are now completing their final shifts before the plant closes this evening after almost six decades of generation.
Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station facts and figures
Ratcliffe occupies a site of approximately 270ha on the A453 adjacent to the East Midlands Parkway railway station.
Approx 350 Uniper colleagues and contractors work on site. During an outage, this can be as many as 600 people.
Construction started in 1963.
The first unit was operational in 1967, with the plant fully commissioned in 1970, providing power for 57 years. Dates that each unit was commissioned: Unit 1 - 16/12/67, Unit 2 - 18/09/68, Unit 3 - 30/01/69, Unit 4 - 17/10/70.
Ratcliffe has a 2GW generation capacity, which is capable of producing enough electricity to power more than two million homes, (roughly the whole of the East Midlands).
Power sent out to the national grid since 1967 has produced enough energy to make more than 1 billion cups of tea per day and over 21 trillion overall (up to 2024).
Ratcliffe has had approx. 141,768 coal deliveries by rail since 1967. The last coal shipment took place on 28 June 2024. GB Rail Freight named one of its locomotives after Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station.
A typical train can deliver up to 15000 tonnes to the power station. At our peak we would receive over 20 trains a day.
Ratcliffe was the only coal-fired plant in the UK to be fitted with a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) emission control facility, capable of reducing NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions by 70-95%.
Ratcliffe has eight cooling towers which stand at height of 114m with a diameter of 87m at the base and 55m at the summit.
The walls of each tower are approximately seven inches thick and are constructed from reinforced draught concrete.
Decommissioning will start in October 2024 for the main coal fired units.
Decommissioning will remove hazards from each plant area before handing over for the next stage of the process. Hazards we will remove are bulk stored oils, chemicals and gases as well as removal of any bulk byproducts and wastes.
