Why we are building a new power station at Staythorpe

Recent European Legislation (Large Combustion Plant Directive) means that many existing coal and oil-fired power stations are required to close by the end of 2015.  Additionally, a number of nuclear plants will close by 2020 as they reach the end of their operational lives.

Despite efforts to improve energy efficiency, we expect that demand for electricity will continue to increase. It is estimated that the UK will require 15-25GW of new capacity by 2020.  This clearly creates a need for a substantial period of investment, starting now, if we are to keep the lights on in the future.

Staythorpe has a number of key advantages as a site for CCGT electricity generation:-

• the site has a long history of power generation stretching back over 50 years
• a gas pipeline to the site already exists — eliminating overland delivery of main fuel to the site
• the infrastructure to feed electricity into the national grid system is already present.