Dong Energy Scraps Plans to Build Coal Power Station

Yet another coal-powered station has encountered trouble, leading to plans for the Dong Energy facility to be scrapped. Dong announced that they would be pulling out of their plans to build a major coal facility at Ayrshire.

The energy company will withdraw from constructing the 1.6GW power station which would have been one of the first to incorporate carbon capture technology. The company is also pulling out of a coal-fired facility in Germany. Dong Energy said it will look to focus on greener energy alternatives and cutting down CO2 emissions.

The decision comes in the wake of E.ON also scrapping plans for their coal-fired power plant at Kingsnorth in Kent. E.ON blamed the dropping of its plans on the lack of power needs in the UK.

Energy companies are dropping plans to build power plants across the UK, after UK energy secretary Ed Miliband has insisted that all new coal fired plants must be built with carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), although environmentalists say that it cannot be guaranteed because the technology may not be available until 2020.

The Dong plant would have been a replacement for the Hunterston nuclear reactor, which is scheduled to close in 2016. Dong is now purposing to invest in alternative energy. The energy firm has taken stakes in wind farms.  The company still maintains a mining company, UK Coal, but has not yet built a coal-fired power facility to date.