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Widnes Road, WARRINGTON, WA5 2UT

View taken from Spike Island.

Fiddler's Ferry power station in Warrington viewed from City Lofts in Salford Quays

The photographer's position is on cleared land at Widnes and is approximate. The aerial photograph shows that this area once had many buildings but it is now returning to nature and is broken underfoot. Fiddler's Ferry Power Station is a coal fired power station that can co-fire biomass and was opened in 1971 with a rating of 1989 MW. There are currently contracts in place to supply power until September 2019. This picture shows that there is some life there with a plume of steam from the boiler house roof. The chimney on the right emitting a white plume is nothing to do with the power station. The black stacks in front of one of the cooling towers are from the gas turbines that can be used to supply the grid in peak periods or for 'black starting' the station. Black starts are rarely needed but if the grid goes down it may be necessary to bring a station up from dead on its own resources. These circumstances did occur in the south during the great storm of 1987 when grid control had to decide to cut a large chunk of the south off to preserve the grid elsewhere as power lines were down and creating dead shorts.

Seen from Doe Green, Penketh. One of the series of giant coal-fired power stations built around 1970.

The power station is viewed from about a mile away in the rapeseed field near Stocks Lane, Penketh

Fiddlers Ferry power station seen from Mowcroft Lane.

The Wikipedia page for Fiddler's Ferry power station says: "With its eight 114-metre (374 ft) high cooling towers and 200-metre (660 ft) high chimney the station is a prominent landmark and can be seen from as far away as the Peak District and the Pennines." It certainly can. I took this shot from an elevation of 385m just above Cessbank Common. Samsung NX500 with a 50-200 zoom lens at 200mm (equivalent to 308mm on a 35mm camera). f5.6 1/250th second ISO200. It was a very dark and gloomy day, and I tried ISO100 too but it washed out the detail.

Taken from the edge of the Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn.

Fiddler's Ferry power station at Cuerdley Cross, viewed across the River Mersey from Runcorn, 3km distant. This 2000MW coal-fired power station became operational in 1973, and is currently owned by Scottish and Southern Energy. It is a significant landmark when viewed across the river from Runcorn, and features in urban artwork painted by local schoolchildren, see: Image