E.ON’s $1.96 Billion Supercritical Clean Coal Project in United Kingdom

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Two new supercritical power generating units planned for construction in the United Kingdom by E.ON, “Will be unlike anything we’ve seen in the UK before and will play a vital role in helping to keep our lights on and in combating climate change in the longer term,” said Dr Paul Golby, CEO of E.ON UK.

A scoping document has been submitted for the first coal-fired units to be built in the country for 20 years. The two 800-megawatt (MW) clean coal units will be sited adjacent to the company’s existing Kingsnorth power station in the Southeastern county of Kent. Building the two units will take an investment of $1.96 billion. The units will be equipped to burn biomass crops alongside the coal feed. If plans go according to schedule, the new units would start commercial operation in 2012, after a proving period and at that stage the existing units would be shut down and demolished.

Operating at higher temperatures and pressures than traditional thermal power generators, the supercritical units will cut CO2 emissions by 200 million tons a year and could eventually be fitted with carbon capture kits that would enable the station from being ‘simply cleaner’ to being genuinely clean coal generation, Golby said. The carbon capture and storage technologies, which the new units would use, are currently being developed by the company in the Killingholme clean coal project feasibility study in Lincolnshire. E.ON UK, which runs Powergen, has made a commitment to reduce the carbon intensity of its generating capacity by 10% by 2012.

“While many of our competitors are retro-fitting clean-up kits on power stations that are over 30 years old, we want to build new, more efficient units that will set a new benchmark for cleaner coal-fired generation in the UK,” claimed Golby.

The Kingsnorth supercritical units are part of the $7.8 billion E.ON investment plan in the United Kingdom that includes new gas-fired power stations at the Isle of Grain in Kent and Drakelow in Derbyshire, the Killingholme study, $2.3 billion of improvements to the electricity distribution network in central England, development of 1,300 megawatts of offshore and onshore windfarms, construction of the UK’s largest biomass power plant at Steven’s Croft in Lockerbie, Scotland, and involvement in the consortium involved in plans for the 1,000 MW London array windfarm, which would be built off the Kent coast if approvals are obtained.

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