Climb the stairs to the roof of the cooling tower at Keadby 2, a new gas power plant in the east of England, and you are rewarded with a story of the UK鈥檚 energy past, present and possible future.
Straight ahead is a mound built from the ash of a coal plant that closed in 1984, a fuel the UK has now almost entirely ditched. Behind stands an array of 34 fast-spinning turbines, England鈥檚 biggest onshore wind farm. Off the coast are some of the UK鈥檚 biggest offshore wind farms. And the site could soon be home to a pair of pioneering low-carbon听power stations, if energy firm SSE gets its wish.
However, perhaps the most extraordinary thing on this flat stretch of land in Lincolnshire, which was reclaimed from the sea, is the power station infrastructure beneath your feet. Keadby 2 will almost certainly be the UK鈥檚 last large traditional gas power plant.
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Construction began in 2018 and has been a 鈥渉ard slog鈥�, says one SSE staffer, not least because of the pandemic, with a covid-19 outbreak on-site early last year briefly pausing work. But the 893-megawatt plant is now in testing mode and due to start commercial operations in October, producing enough electricity听for more than 800,000 homes.
Alistair Phillips-Davies, SSE鈥檚 chief executive, is keen to point out that the company is also investing in renewables. 鈥淸But] if the wind isn鈥檛 blowing or the sun isn鈥檛 shining, you still need some flexibility there,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the reason we built this.鈥�
Yet some question the project鈥檚 wisdom after 听and with high gas prices now projected to last for years. Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine has compounded those price shocks and also triggered a wider rethink about reliance on gas. 鈥淎s SSE, you would look and think, 鈥業s this going to be a stranded asset, with everything going on.鈥� Gas prices are very volatile,鈥� says Jess Ralston at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a UK-based think tank.
Most power stations are built to last decades. However, even before the war in Europe, the UK government effectively gave this one a 13-year shelf life by . The plant will emit about 350 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour it generates 鈥� more efficient than the average UK gas plant at , but still much higher than the average UK electricity generation, which was and .
鈥淭his will have to be retrofitted in some way, shape or form with a mixture of carbon capture and storage, and/or be converted to hydrogen [by 2035],鈥� says Phillips-Davies. To cut emissions, the plant could even start blending in hydrogen to replace a fifth of the gas it burns by the end of the 2020s, he says.
However, Phil MacDonald, the head of climate think tank Ember, says hydrogen is so much less energy dense than natural gas that the volumes involved in blending it would be tantamount to greenwashing, because the carbon emissions savings would be so small. 鈥淏lending is a real red herring,鈥� he says. Phillips-Davies rejects the notion that the savings would be too small to be worthwhile, saying 鈥渢he issue is we鈥檙e on a transition鈥�.
SSE says the plant will run 50 to 60 per cent of the time in coming years, to support the electricity grid. But Phillips-Davies says it will gradually be squeezed out by new and lower-carbon power stations, two of which he hopes to build here.
One is Keadby 3, a gas power station that would capture and store up to 95 per cent of its carbon emissions. If built by 2027, as SSE hopes, it would be a world first. The second is Keadby Hydrogen, swapping the car park here for the world鈥檚 first hydrogen power station. Both are welcome and extremely ambitious, says Ralston.
The plans are more than just ideas听鈥� planning permissions have been sought and millions already spent on development, says Phillips-Davies 鈥� but they are unlikely to happen without government financial support.
Power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) don鈥檛 have a good track record globally, says MacDonald. One complication is that pipelines and a seabed storage facility for the carbon dioxide need to be built. And it remains to be seen if enough hydrogen can be produced, using either natural gas and CCS, or renewables and electrolysers. Phillips-Davies prefers the latter, but thinks the former will be needed to source enough hydrogen.
This vision of the UK鈥檚 energy future may not come to pass. Energy-storage technology听could mature faster than expected to be the reliable backbone for renewables instead, says MacDonald. But Kayleigh Wilcox, an engineer at SSE who used to work at nearby Ferrybridge, a coal power station that was closed despite a CCS pilot, is hopeful this future materialises. 鈥淭he industry has felt like it鈥檚 shrinking,鈥� she says. 鈥淸But now] it looks like a lot of us might have a career for a while.鈥�
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