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Dr. Michael Clark
asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will indicate the amount of coal required to run a coal-fired power station of 2,000 MW for 20 years, and the volume of spoil and ash which would be associated with both the coal mining and coal burning.
Mr. David Hunt
A 2,000 MW coal-fired power station could be expected to consume some 100 million tonnes of coal, some of which normally would be produced by opencast methods, over a 20-year period. The volume of ash which could be expected to arise would be of the order of 16ยท5 million cu m. The volume of spoil which could be expected to be produced from a modern colliery supplying such a power station would be of the order of 14 million cu m.