page_title: River Trent
section_title: Power stations
hierarchical_section_title: River Trent / Power stations
caption_attribution_description: English: View to Cottam Cottam power station reflected in a very calm River Trent, seen from Trent Port
context_page_description: The River Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains most of the metropolitan central and northern Midlands south and east of its source north of Stoke-on-Trent. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and spring snowmelt, which in past times often caused the river to change course.
  The river passes through Stoke-on-Trent, Stone, Rugeley, Burton upon Trent and Nottingham before joining the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea between Hull in Yorkshire and Immingham in Lincolnshire. The course of the river has often been described as the boundary between the Midlands and the north of England.
context_section_description: The tall chimneys and concave shaped cooling towers of the many power stations are a dominant and familiar presence within the open landscape of the Trent valley, which has been widely used for power generation since the 1940s.
  The primary reason for locating so many generating stations beside the Trent was the availability of sufficient amounts of cooling water from the river. This combined with the nearby supplies of fuel in the form of coal from the Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire coalfields, and the existing railway infrastructure meant that a string of twelve large power stations were originally constructed along its banks. At one time these sites provided a quarter of the electricity needs of the UK, giving rise to the epithet 'Megawatt Valley'.
  Once these early stations reached the end of their functional life, they were usually demolished, although in some cases the sites have been retained and redeveloped as gas fired power stations.
  In downstream order, the power stations that continue to use, or have used the river as their source of cooling water are: Meaford, Rugeley, Drakelow, Willington, Castle Donington, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Wilford, Staythorpe, High Marnham, Cottam, West Burton and Keadby.
  The three largest remaining coal-fired stations at Ratcliffe, Cottam and West Burton still use domestic coal supplies, although this is now being replaced by imported coal brought by ship from abroad.
  There is one hydroelectric power station on the river, Beeston Hydro at Beeston Weir.
caption: Cottam Power Station
exif: {}