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Battersea Power Station
The upside down table like power station at Battersea has now been out of commission for many years. It has been a South London Landmark and always brings a smile to my face when i travel past it on a train from Victoria Station.
The power station was built to burn coal, that highly polluting and emission creating fuel, but was ahead of its times as the surplus heat that power stations always generate was siphoned off into social housing to provide then with free heat for space and water. These days power stations are located far from where people live and the surplus heat energy is wasted.
Several businesses have thought about acquiring the power station and turning it into – a conference centre, or a theme park with rides or even a casino with shopping but none of the plans have been economic and tyhe power station, listed as a protected building for its design is gradually crumbling.
My idea about the building is simply to turn it back into a power station, but this time burning natural gas. It could also be used for gas storage; we are still very short of having stores of natural gas in the United Kingdom and the old power station could serve this purpose.
As power stations goes the site is small, but small is beautiful. A new gas burning power station could be built to the highest environmental standards and there are plenty of nearby houses that could benefit from the surplus heat. It could easily be metered and sold as heat, recreating a real environmentally friendly district heating system in the heart of London.
The cost of all this infrastructure would be significantly less than the cost of a tunnel for the proposed high speed rail link to Birmingham and would have far greater environmental benefits.
Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, energy, global warming Tagged: Battersea Power Station, district heating, ideas for Battersea Power Station, surplus heat from power stations 
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