When I was a young boy, I often traveled to London by train…. and knew I was getting close to Victoria Station when the train passed the iconic Battersea Power Station. Peter Watts begins his book about the power plant, Up in Smoke, describing exactly that same experience — although the view is no longer available. Instead, it has been blocked by upscale condominiums, part of the re-development that occurred years after the power plant was closed.

Watts tells the story of that re-development, but truthfully I was much more interested in another part of its history. I discuss the power plant in my energy technology course, because it was the site of the very first flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system, utilizing Thames River water to remove acidic sulfur dioxide from the exhaust gas of its coal-fired units. This was not a comprehensive environmental solution, because the resulting liquid effluent was dumped back into the river – but it was a start.

Watts’ book was very informative, however, because I did not realize how important the FGD unit was in getting approval for building such a major coal-burning facility right in the middle of the city. That was close to the electrical load demand, but even then (early 1930s) citizens were concerned about the pollution. Similarly, as Watts notes, it had an effect on the iconic design:

For the [FGD] process to function, chimneys needed to be sited at either end of the flues, which ran the entire length of the building: this would eventually give Battersea Power Station its distinctive appearance.

Today the power plant houses an upscale shopping center in its turbine halls, and one can take an elevator up to the top of one of those iconic stacks on Lift 109. The power plant has played a key cultural role in numerous movies, and received special attention in 1977 when it appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd’s Animals album. That featured a pink pig flying between its stacks – although the pig unfortunately became untethered, disrupting air traffic and ending up in Kent.