The end of an era for the Didcot A cooling towers has been announced. Three of the Didcot A cooling towers have been demolished The Didcot A cooling towers had helped to secure energy supplies in the UK for more than 40 years.
New gas stations will take over energy production and they aim to provide consumers with low cost electricity. The demolition is part of RWE’s commitment to renewable technologies. RWE says that it has invested more than £6 billion pounds into finding greener technologies and state-of-the-art gas fired power stations.
A statement from RWE, which is one of Europe’s leading gas and electricity companies, says that the demolition of Didcot A will have minimal impact on Didcot B and the plant at Didcot will continue to play an essential part in power generation, producing enough gas to fuel 1 million homes in the UK.
Commenting on the demolition of Didcot A, Kevin Nix, Head of RWE Generation UK, said:
”Although this is a sad day and the end of an era in many ways, I am very pleased that the technically challenging demolition of the southern cooling towers has been carried out successfully and above all with the safety of all those involved, including the local community, as its highest priority. This is entirely due to months of pre-planning and the professionalism of the specialist teams involved.”
An expert team is continuing to work at Didcot to oversee the demolition of the rest of the site. The northern cooling towers will also be felled along with other structures from the Didcot power station. The aim is to complete the demolition work by 2016.
Plans to close the Didcot A were first announced in 2012 and it was finally closed in 2013; decommissioning of Didcot A started last year and took nine months.
The demolition of Didcot A is a reflection of the changing face of power generation in the UK. In recent years, the government has been urging energy firms to find cleaner, greener forms of energy and to find ways of reducing carbon emissions.
As part of government plans to find renewable forms of power generation, the government has announced a number of initiatives to encourage energy firms to find greener forms of energy production. The government has invested considerable funds to help drive the UK towards clean energy and it is committed to spending more in the years to come.