COMMISSIONED in 1968 by the Central Electricity Generating Board, Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station’s primary task was to produce two gigawatts of reliable power – not the maximisation of profits of our current ‘renewables’.
It did this successfully until Monday but was closed (Mail), like all of our coal-fired power stations, because of the belief that the tiny fraction of CO2 in the air it emitted caused the climate to change – for which there is no evidence whatsoever.
I visited the power station last month and was astounded at the size and grace of its eight cooling towers. These, and the turbine hall and storage area, occupy a compact site, not much more than a square kilometre. The site was chosen because it is adjacent to cooling water and near centres of high electricity demand.
How different this is from wind power, which is supposed to replace coal power. Wind farms are far from demand, need new high-pylon lines and hill tracks, produce limited intermittent electricity and occupy large swathes of upland Britain.
They garner profits from bizarre pricing schemes while working at a load factor of 25 per cent onshore and 35 per cent offshore – and they are owned and manufactured by foreign companies, unlike the CEGB power stations, which were built using all-British equipment and owned and operated in house.
Closing these cathedrals of industry will not end well, especially as nearly all of our nuclear reactors will soon close too.
WILLIAM LONESKIE, Bo’ness, West Lothian
0 Comments