Publication Account

Date 1997

Event ID 1019364

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019364

The first of a series of giant coal-burning power stations commissioned by the South of Scotland Electricity Board on its formation in 1955 as part of moves towards an inegrated Scottish national energy policy (following the break-up of the British Electricity Authority). Kincardine was brought into service in five stages between 1958 and 1963, with an ultimate generating capacity of 760 kilowatts - at the time, one of the largest in Europe. Adjoined by two 400-ft. chimneys, the main building has a steel-framed structure (by Redpath Brown) with light cladding of aluminium and glass - a decisive break from the interwar 'cathedral of pwoer' tradition. The station was designed to burn low-grade coal from local colieries. The Kincardine area's coal extraction/energy generation complex was further augmented from 1966, when the country's largest conventional power station, the Longannet plant, also designed by RMJM, was built. In comparison with the slender elegance of Kincardine, Longannet's single-chimneyed massiveness purposefully expresses its far greater capacity. (Fig. 4.8).

Information from 'Rebuilding Scotland, 1945-75', (1997).