Energy News – Early October 2024
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Work has begun on a £4.3bn five-year electricity infrastructure project which will deliver clean energy to around two million homes in the North of England.
At peak periods of construction, the project is expected to support hundreds of local jobs in Yorkshire, through supply chain and construction activity.
UK coal-fired electricity production will stop today (Monday September 30) after 142 years when Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station is finally shut down for the last time.
The iconic plant – whose cooling towers have long been symbolic to weary travellers on their way back to Nottingham – has been generating power for around two million homes since it came online in 1968 but has been the last of its kind in the UK for a year.
Offshore wind company, RWE, has unveiled the first of the turbine blades being made at the Siemens Gamesa factory in Hull, marking a milestone in construction of the flagship project.
The 108-metre-long blades are attached to each of the 100 x 14 megawatts (MW) offshore wind turbines which will operate at the heart of RWE’s Sofia Offshore Wind project.
Once fully operational, the 1.4 gigawatts (GW) Sofia Offshore Wind Farm in the North Sea will be capable of generating enough clean, renewable electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 1.2 million typical UK homes every year.