The station has stood as a landmark on the Northumberland coast since it opened in 1972, and had been privately owned by aluminium company Rio Tinto Alcan throughout its operation until December 2013, when RWE npower took over.

[9] The smelter and power station were constructed in southeast Northumberland to lower high unemployment numbers.

Other structures include a single 114 m (374 ft) tall chimney of reinforced concrete, and coal delivery and sorting plant.

Trains supplying the station used the Newbiggin and Lynemouth branch line of the Blyth and Tyne Railway, which also served the smelter.

It is situated a long way from the major coal unloading ports of Teesside, Hull and Immingham, which had been booked by power stations closer to them.

Due to high production costs and industry restructuring in Poland though, the only realistic source of imported coal for the station was Russia.

[27] There are three condensers (one per each generating set) in the interior of the power station, which are used to cool the heated water before it is reused in the steam cycle.

This is done at an on site water treatment plant that uses a process of ion exchange to remove impurities such as silica and control PH levels so as to avoid boiler tube corrosion.

This treated water is used to make superheated steam in the coal-fired boilers, that will turn the turbines before being recovered in the condenser and reused.

[citation needed] Operating close to the power station is a fishing bait company, Seabait.

Seabait uses some of the excess hot water that the plant generates to grow worms four times as fast as in the wild.

Since 2006, ash produced at Lynemouth Power Station has been recycled and used as a sub-fill material in the construction industry and in the production of grout.

In September 2007, Pulverised Fuel Ash was utilised as a filling material in the capping of Woodhorn Landfill, which had been used for the disposal of spent potlining from the smelter.

Since 2004 three different types of biomass fuel been in use at Lynemouth; Sawdust and Wood pellets from FSC certified forests and Olive residues.

[32] The station earned the world class OHSAS 18001 health and safety certificate in 2003, ahead of Alcan's global targets.

[35] In late 1994, the power station was flooded to a foot deep of sea water, after a freak high tide and strong winds.

The colliery closed for good in 2005, leading to problems with coastal defence again, threatening the station's coal stocking area.

[39] Despite this, in 2006 the power station was revealed as having the fourth highest CO2 emissions in the north of England, for producing 2,685,512 tonnes of CO2 per year.

[40] However, generally the station reduced its CO2 emissions by 65% between 1990 and 2010, and the local air quality meets UK and European standards.

An appeal hearing was given in April 2008, and permission was eventually granted in January 2009 for the construction of up to 13 turbines, producing 30 MW of electricity.

This would have involved treating the coal prior to burning so that less CO2 was produced, with any remaining CO2 being pumped under the North Sea into an aquifer.

[46] The European Commission (EC) claimed that Alcan is in breach of their operating licence as the station has failed to "significantly reduce its emissions".

The UK Government contested the allegations, as the power station and smelter combined then provided 650 jobs and a contribution of £100,000,000 to the local economy, in an area heavily affected by the loss of traditional heavy industry.

A date has not yet been given for it to conform, but two options for saving the station are the CCS project, or a switch from coal to biomass as a fuel.

[41] Lynemouth's future came further under threat in March 2011, following carbon cutting measures announced in the 2011 United Kingdom budget.

These include: The chimney of the power station is a strong landmark on the local coastline, and can be seen over a 25-kilometre (16 mi) stretch of coast, from Cresswell[56] down to South Shields pier.