The Welsh Energy Research Centre

OUR RESEARCH PARTNERS:

  1. Cardiff University
  2. University of Glamorgan
  3. Swansea University
  4. University of Bangor
  5. Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research

OUR SPONSORS:

  1. EU
  2. WAG
Wind Farms

Latest WERC News

Below you can read your chosen news from the WERC. At the bottom of the page can also be found a list of Archived News Articles.

Goodbye Tower Colliery - 25/01/2008




Goodbye to Tower Colliery


25th January 2008

Today the last deep coal mine in Wales closed at Tower Colliery, Hirwaun in the Neath Valley.


Coal has been mined there for nearly 200 years.  British Coal decided to close the pit because it was uneconomical.  The miners lead by Tyron O'Sulivan thought otherwise and bought the pit with their redundancy payout.  This never say die and passionate work force kept the mine alive for another 13 years until the last piece of coal came out.  Tyron will probably keep that last piece of coal in his allotment shed and ponder over days gone by over the carrots and a cup of tea.

That's not the end of mining in Wales though, new mines are opening up in the Neath Valley.  Because of the price of fuels and because of energy security coal is finding a new life.  We need to use this resource, which we will be using for decades yet, in a more efficient and cleaner way.  By using higher pressure and higher temperature boilers we can use coal in a more efficient way and by using carbon capture in a cleaner way.  But with the higher temperature and high pressures new steel's need to be used, there is a great deal of research to be done on all of these areas. The coal story does not end here.










The last union flag to be seen at Tower

The NUM banner makes it's way through the press posse
It was a cold and windy day, you had to hang on tight to the banner.

"It way bloody colder than this on the first day we bought it"  Tower miner

Tyron with Sara Dickins and the BBC Wales crew

Tower WAG's up for a party

Archived News Stories: