20 January 2012
The combined students of 8J and 8S took a Geography and Science trip to the power station that dominates our local environment and landscape - Didcot.
We started our visit off with a talk and DvD in the education centre. We had a lesson on energy sources and production methods. Two interesting facts are that the coal at Didcot A is supplemented with 10% bio mass to cut emissions and that the water in the boilers is 10,000 times more pure than tap water (to stop furring). After we donned our dayglow safety gear we headed out into the station itself.
We saw first hand that coal stations are dirty places - the boilers use 15 tonnes of coal per minute - each! This coal is brought from Bristol Docks each day on up to 50 huge trains.
We learned that the coal station (Didcot A) cannot meet the tough new EU rules on pollution - so will be closed down in the next two years.
This will halt our trips to this interesting facility.
