{"id":695297,"date":"2026-05-26T08:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695297\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T08:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:31:10","slug":"liddell-power-stations-famous-chimney-stacks-crumble-into-history-in-massive-blast-new-south-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695297\/","title":{"rendered":"Liddell power station\u2019s famous chimney stacks crumble into history in massive blast | New South Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two chimneys of Liddell coal-fired power station have come crashing down, marking the close of a site which provided energy for New South Wales<\/a> for half a century.<\/p>\n

In a demolition streamed online on Tuesday, the two 170m stacks of the Hunter Valley power station, owned by energy giant AGL since 2014, came down one after the other following massive detonations of explosives.<\/p>\n

The power station was officially retired in April 2023 after more than 52 years in operation. At its peak, it supplied electricity to around one million homes a year.<\/p>\n

The site will become host to the 500 megawatt Liddell battery for energy storage, including from renewable sources.<\/p>\n

Liddell station\u2019s closure manager, Chris Druery, said the demolition of the smokestacks was \u201cpretty much like felling a tree\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"WatchWatch as giant chimney stacks of former NSW coal-fired Liddell power station are demolished \u2013 video<\/p>\n

\u201cWe basically blow a wedge out of the front of the stack in the direction that we\u2019re trying to fell it in. They cut the back of the stack to remove resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the explosion goes off, it blows that wedge out of the front and it basically falls over like a tree does when you fell a tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Nature Conservation Council NSW said the demolition showed \u201cthe shift to clean energy is working\u201d.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s chief executive, Jacqui Mumford, said: \u201cToday\u2019s demolition of the smokestacks at Liddell power station shows we can achieve a transition to reliable cleaner energy, in fact it\u2019s already well underway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking before the demolition on Tuesday, the NSW premier, Chris Minns, said the power station had \u201cbeen an incredible source of energy that\u2019s really fired up NSW for many, many years\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an important change, but I think today is actually quite iconic in relation to what it means in terms of where the transition is up to, and I would take the opportunity to actually thank all the workers who\u2019ve worked at Liddell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid the renewable transition, NSW\u2019s continued use of coal-fired power has come under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

On Monday, a NSW parliamentary inquiry heard that the Minns government\u2019s coal industry statement, which will allow existing coalmine expansions and extensions to continue<\/a>, was inconsistent with NSW Net Zero commission advice. The government has approved at least eight coal expansions and extensions since the 2023 election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two chimneys of Liddell coal-fired power station have come crashing down, marking the close of a site…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-695297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}