Megawatt Valley

Megawatt Valley is a term applied to a geographic location which houses a large number of electricity generating stations.

The term was then associated with an area of Yorkshire centred on the River Aire that was home to Ferrybridge C, Eggborough and Drax power stations.

[6] The five surviving cooling towers at the long-closed Willington Power Station were preserved from demolition due to the presence of nesting birds.

[10] This switch began to be made in the 1990s, during the so-called Dash for Gas, and led to the closure of many coal-fired plants, including those in Megawatt Valley.

[14] The pulverised fly ash (PFA) generated by the power stations was, until the 1980s, used to fill the majority of sand and gravel workings in the Trent Valley.

[15] There remains a concern amongst some residents that the old coal power stations will be replaced by other forms of generation such as wind turbines and that Megawatt Valley will continue to be viewed as a place where visual intrusion by energy assets is acceptable.

[17] Upstream of Richard Stone's geographical limit at Meaford was the 31 MW Stoke-on-Trent power station (1913–1960s), located adjacent to the river Trent.

[47] This was one of the few remaining concentrations of coal-fired generation in the UK; the power stations being located close to historic coal-mining sites on the South Yorkshire Coalfield and to the River Aire.