Aberthaw B Power Station

Aberthaw B Power Station is a 1554 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station owned by RWE nPower and is located at Barry, South Glamorgan, on the South Wales coast in the United Kingdom.

Flue gas desulfurization
Aberthaw was due for closure until RWE nPower agreed to install new technology to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 90% by 2008. RWE npower made the decision to fit Flue Gas Desulphurization (FSG) technology in June 2005, to enable the station to operate under new European environmental regulations from 2008. Construction started on June 21, 2006. .

April 3, 2008: Rising Tide occupation of Aberthaw Power Station
On April 3, 2008, as part of the Fossil Fools International Day of Action, members of Bristol Rising Tide occupied the Aberthaw coal-fired power plant in South Wales. Activists entered the facility, chained themselves to conveyor belts, and occupied several buildings; others locked themselves to the facility's front gates. The action was in solidarity with the Ffos-y-Fran mine construction site in South Wales; coal from Ffos-y-Fran will be used to fuel Aberthaw for 17 years. Police arrested 11 people.

April 26, 2010: Coal Train Blockaded in Wales
On Monday 26 April activists associated with Rising Tide blockaded the railtrack which carries coal from the opencast mine at Ffos-y-Fran in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales to Aberthaw B Power Station in South Wales. It took the combined efforts of British Rail Police and South Wales Police over 8 hours to remove the last of the protesters. According to a press release from Rising Tide, 18 People from Bristol and Bath were charged under the Malicious Damages Act of 1861, a law to protect the interests of 19th Century rail owners. If convicted they face anything up to a life sentence in prison.

Nuclear proposal
It has recently been proposed that the plant could be replaced by a power station using nuclear energy. .

Carbon Capture and Storage Trial
In November 2009, RWE announced that it intended to submit a planning application for a 3MW Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) plant at Aberthaw, which it boasted "will be at least eight times the size of existing 'post-combustion' projects in the UK and operate for twice as long." The announcement coincide with the decision of the PECCS joint venture, of which RWE npower is a member, to withdraw from the bidding process for the UK government's Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage Competition for demonstration CCS projects.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * United Kingdom and coal

External Articles

 * Photos of Aberthaw Power Station and surrounding area