E.On UK has submitted a planning application for the UK’s first new coal-fired units for over 20 years following a recent scoping study for the development at its Kingsnorth power station in Kent.
The company intends to develop two 800 MW supercritical coal-fired units at the site next to the existing four units. The new units are expected to come on line in 2012 once they had been proven when the existing units would be shut down and demolished.
Dr Paul Golby, chief executive of E.On UK, commented: “While many of our competitors are retro-fitting clean up kit 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.”
The new units would cost around £1 billion ($2 billion) to build and could also be co-fired with biomass, the company says.
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