Richborough Energy Park

51°18′38″N 1°20′41″E﻿ / ﻿51.3106091°N 1.3446422°E﻿ / 51.3106091; 1.3446422

Richborough Energy Park is a site of non-traditional power generation, on the site of the former Richborough power station close to the mouth of the River Stour near Sandwich, on the east coast of Kent, England.[1]

## Site history[edit]

Main article: Richborough power station

The original Richborough power station operated from 1962 to 1996, with final demolition being undertaken in 2012. It originally burnt coal, but later converted to oil and that to the burning of Orimulsion.

The station was also the site of an experimental wind turbine in 1989, which at 1MW was the biggest then installed anywhere in the United Kingdom.

## Current use[edit]

The national grid interconnector from the original power station is still in place, and is now the grid link for the offshore Thanet Wind Farm.[2][3]

The site is the landing site for the ±400 kV 1,000 MW HVDC power cable from Belgium called Nemo Link, built by Siemens, which entered commercial service on 31 January 2019.[4][5]

## Plans[edit]

The current owner of the site, BFL Management Ltd, plan to bring the site back into use as a £750 million green energy park. There are additional plans to create additional recycling and green energy facilities on site, including an anaerobic digester, a waste processing plant, a biomass combined heat and power generator, a pyrolysis plant and a peak demand 30MW diesel generator.[6] As of 2023-24 a battery storage facility was in process of being constructed, part of this was operational in January 2024. When fully operational, the park could provide up to 1,400MW of power, employing 100 full-time equivalent, with up to 500 jobs in the construction phase.[7]

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Richborough Energy Park expansion gets green light". BBC News. 29 September 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
2. ^ "Design and Access Statement In support of an Application to construct a new access road at Richborough Power Station East Kent" (PDF). Dover District Council. 2007. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
3. ^ "History". Richborough Energy Park.
4. ^ "Union list of projects of common interest" page 4. 18 November 2015.
5. ^ Keighley, Tom (10 November 2015). "DeepOcean win work on subsea electricity link between UK and Belgium". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
6. ^ "Our Proposals". Richborough Energy Park.
7. ^ "Richborough Power Station Demolished (VIDEO)". 11 March 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.

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