Britain’s power: a timeline

Eleven British firsts, one last, and five stations that show what came next, from a Northumberland burn in 1878 to the Pentland Firth today. Each bar is one site, coloured by what it ran on: read across a row to watch a station change fuel, and down the chart to see what was new in any year.

The seventeen stations

17 stations · 1878 to today · coloured by fuel

TimelineTiles

Cragside1878

Hydro · Northumberland

First hydro in Britain

Holborn Viaduct1882

Coal · City of London

First public supply in Britain

Deptford1889

Coal, AC · Deptford, on the Thames

First AC in Britain

Lots Road1905

Coal, oil, then gas · Chelsea, on the Thames

Greenwich1906

Coal, oil, then gas standby · Greenwich, on the Thames

Battersea1933

Coal · Nine Elms, on the Thames

First coal super-station in Britain

Bankside1952

Oil · Southwark, on the Thames

First oil-fired station in Britain

Roosecote1953

Gas (CCGT) · Barrow-in-Furness

First CCGT in Britain

Calder Hall1956

Nuclear (Magnox) · Sellafield, Cumbria

First nuclear in Britain

Ffestiniog1963

Pumped storage · Snowdonia

First pumped storage in Britain

Ratcliffe-on-Soar1967

Coal · Nottinghamshire, on the Soar

Last coal-fired station in Britain

Edmonton1970

Waste to energy · North London

Fawley1971

Oil · Southampton Water

Delabole1991

Onshore wind · North Cornwall

First commercial wind in Britain

Blyth2000

Offshore wind · Off Northumberland

First offshore wind in Britain

Wheal Jane2011

Solar · Baldhu, near Truro

MeyGen2016

Tidal stream · Pentland Firth

First tidal stream in Britain

Cragside

12 kW today

First hydro in Britain

Armstrong’s house, lit from Debdon Burn. No source read here records when the original plant stopped; an Archimedes screw has generated on the burn since 2014.

Holborn Viaduct

93 kW at its largest

First public supply in Britain

Edison’s station in a rented building on the bridge. Closed in September 1886 at a heavy annual loss and the lamps went back to gas.

Deptford

448 MW at its largest

First AC in Britain

Ferranti’s station, the first built for high-voltage supply from a distance. Deptford East LP ran to the late 1960s, West to 1972, East HP to 1983.

Lots Road

55 MW at its largest

The Underground’s own station. Heavy fuel oil from the 1960s, the boilers converted to North Sea gas in the mid-1970s and firing gas from 1976 with oil in reserve; switched off on 21 October 2002 after 97 years.

Greenwich

117.6 MW today

The London County Council’s tramway station. The steam plant gave way to gas turbines in 1969–72, run on oil until the conversion to natural gas in 1976; now London Underground’s emergency supply.

Battersea

503 MW at its largest

First coal super-station in Britain

Station A from 1933, Station B from 1953. A stopped on 17 March 1975, B on 31 October 1983. Reopened as shops and flats in 2022.

Bankside

300 MW at its largest

First oil-fired station in Britain

Redesigned for oil rather than coal after the shortage of 1947, to keep a coal station’s smoke out of central London — the first British station built for it, though Bankside A had burned oil in some boilers since the 1921 coal strike. Closed 31 October 1981; Tate Modern since 2000.

Roosecote

49 MW today · 228 MW at its largest

First CCGT in Britain

Three lives on one piece of ground: coal from September 1953 to November 1986, the first CCGT to supply the National Grid from 1991, mothballed in 2012, and a 49 MW battery since 2018.

Calder Hall

240 MW at its largest

First nuclear in Britain

Opened by the Queen on 17 October 1956, the world’s first full-scale nuclear station. The last reactor closed on 31 March 2003 after nearly 47 years.

Ffestiniog

360 MW today

First pumped storage in Britain

Britain’s first major pumped-storage station: 360 MW in under a minute from Llyn Stwlan, put back overnight by pumping.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar

2,000 MW at its largest

Last coal-fired station in Britain

Britain’s last coal-fired power station: eight cooling towers and 2,000 MW beside the Soar. Its first unit ran in December 1967; it closed on 30 September 2024, and with it went 142 years of coal power that began at Holborn Viaduct in 1882.

Edmonton

55 MW reported in 2002 · around 40 MW gross by 2017

North London’s refuse burned for electricity; the operator dates the first export to the grid to 1970. The North London Heat and Power Project will replace it.

Fawley

2,000 MW at its largest

Commissioned 6 May 1971 beside the Esso refinery that fed it. Closed 31 March 2013 under the Large Combustion Plant Directive; demolished 2019–21.

Delabole

9.2 MW today

First commercial wind in Britain

Britain’s first commercial wind farm, ten turbines from November 1991. Taken down in August 2010 and repowered with four larger machines from February 2011.

Blyth

41.5 MW today

First offshore wind in Britain

The first two turbines offshore in British waters, December 2000, removed in March 2019 as the consent required. The Offshore Demonstrator, five turbines on gravity bases, from 2017.

Wheal Jane

1.4 MW today

5,680 panels on seven acres of the reclaimed Wheal Jane tin mine. Britain’s largest solar farm when it was switched on in July 2011, and among its first — J B Wheaton & Sons’ array in Somerset was commissioned weeks earlier.

MeyGen

6 MW today

First tidal stream in Britain

Tidal stream turbines on the seabed of the Inner Sound. First power December 2016, commercial operation from April 2018, the marine licence to 2041.

In the register →

Scroll the chart sideways to follow the years →

The five that were nobody’s first are here for what they show: Lots Road and Greenwich each changed fuel twice as the century turned under them, Fawley and Edmonton are the scale the firsts led to, and Wheal Jane was the largest of the first solar farms. Coal power in Britain began at Holborn Viaduct in 1882 and ended 142 years later at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, the last, on 30 September 2024.

Each colour is the one its station’s square stands on; in the dark theme the darkest are lifted so they can be seen on the dark ground. The spans come from the first generation and decommissioned facts on each station’s own page, which are not yet on this site; this page adds no dates of its own. A dashed segment is a boundary the sources give as a period rather than a date — Lots Road’s conversion to oil in the 1960s, and both stations’ conversion to natural gas, which began in 1976 and ran to about 1977. Greenwich’s gas turbines of 1969–72 burned oil until the first were switched on for natural gas in 1976; oil stayed as the standby fuel. Cragside’s first span is faded, and fades out because no source read there records when the original plant stopped — the length of that bar is not a claim; its screw has generated since 2014. An arrow means the site still generates. Battersea’s bar ends in 1983: the building reopened in 2022, but it makes no electricity. Edmonton is shown as waste to energy; DESNZ’s statistics count it as bioenergy. The drawings are stylised, not survey-accurate.

All seventeen stations

The same spans as the chart, in order of first generation

The seventeen historic stations, with what they ran on, where, when and at what capacity
Station	What it ran on	Where	First generation	Ran	Capacity
Cragsidefirst hydro	Hydro	Northumberland	1878	Still generating	12 kWtoday
Holborn Viaductfirst public supply	Coal	City of London	1882	To 1886	93 kWat its largest
Deptfordfirst AC	Coal	Deptford, on the Thames	1889	To 1983	448 MWat its largest
Lots Road	Coal, Oil, then Gas	Chelsea, on the Thames	1905	To 2002	55 MWat its largest
Greenwich	Coal, Oil, then Gas	Greenwich, on the Thames	1906	Still generating	117.6 MWtoday
Batterseafirst coal super-station	Coal	Nine Elms, on the Thames	1933	To 1983	503 MWat its largest
Banksidefirst oil-fired station	Oil	Southwark, on the Thames	1952	To 1981	300 MWat its largest
Roosecotefirst CCGT 1991	Coal, Gas, then Battery	Barrow-in-Furness	1953	Still generating	49 MWtoday
Calder Hallfirst nuclear	Nuclear	Sellafield, Cumbria	1956	To 2003	240 MWat its largest
Ffestiniogfirst pumped storage	Pumped storage	Snowdonia	1963	Still generating	360 MWtoday
Ratcliffe-on-Soarlast coal-fired station	Coal	Nottinghamshire, on the Soar	1967	To 2024	2,000 MWat its largest
Edmonton	Waste to energy	North London	1970	Still generating	55 MWreported in 2002
Fawley	Oil	Southampton Water	1971	To 2013	2,000 MWat its largest
Delabolefirst commercial wind	Wind	North Cornwall	1991	Still generating	9.2 MWtoday
Blythfirst offshore wind	Wind	Off Northumberland	2000	Still generating	41.5 MWtoday
Wheal Jane	Solar	Baldhu, near Truro	2011	Still generating	1.4 MWtoday
MeyGenfirst tidal stream	Tidal stream	Pentland Firth	2016	Still generating	6 MWtoday

Sources

Every date, capacity and fuel on this page was checked against the sources below, station by station. Wikipedia is used for facts only; no text is reproduced from it. The drawings are this site’s own.

Cragside — Wikipedia; the National Trust; Historic England
Holborn Viaduct — Wikipedia; Living London History; the Science Museum; Equinor
Deptford — Wikipedia; Historic England
Lots Road — Wikipedia; TfL Corporate Archives, Research Guide 30
Greenwich — Wikipedia; TfL Corporate Archives, Research Guide 30
Battersea — Wikipedia
Bankside — Wikipedia; Historic England
Roosecote — Wikipedia; Historic England; the Global Energy Observatory; Centrica; Solar Power Portal
Calder Hall — Wikipedia
Ffestiniog — Wikipedia; the operator, First Hydro
Ratcliffe-on-Soar — Wikipedia; Uniper; PBS; Al Jazeera
Edmonton — Wikipedia; LondonEnergy; the North London Heat and Power Project
Fawley — Wikipedia
Delabole — Wikipedia
Blyth — Wikipedia; EDF
Wheal Jane — the trade and local press of July 2011
MeyGen — Wikipedia