Inverkip Power Station

Inverkip Power Station
©2022 Gazetteer for Scotland

Inverkip Power Station

Located to the south of Inverkip, north of the village of Wemyss Bay, some 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Greenock, Inverkip was Scotland's first oil-fired power station, with construction beginning in 1970 to designs by Sir Robert Matthew (1906-75). The station is a noted landmark, with its 236m (778-foot) chimney, which contains more than 1.4 million bricks and 20,000 tonnes of concrete and was the tallest free-standing structure in Scotland and third tallest in the UK. Consisting of two generating units, the plant was designed to produce 1900 mega-watts of electricity but, due to the cost of oil, it has rarely worked at full capacity, except during the 1984 miner's strike. It stopped generating electricity in the late 1980s and was thereafter maintained as part of a strategic reserve. Demolition of the station began in 2010 and the chimney was demolished by controlled explosion on 29th July 2013.

The station was run by Scottish Power, a privatised utility which now forms part of a multi-national energy group.


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