Throughout the decades the massive boilers and cooling towers of Kent's power stations have loomed large across the landscape.

But as the world moves to cleaner methods of generating energy, the colossal plants are dwindling in numbers, leading to closures and even demolition.

In the government's Energy Trends report released earlier this year, it was revealed more than a third of UK energy came from renewable sources in 2019, including wind, solar and bioenergy.

This was up 33% from the previous year, and shows the industry's reaction to the pressures of meeting carbon targets, not to mention outward pressures from environment protest groups like Extinction Rebellion.

Vattenfall is one company capitalising on the changing landscapes of the industry with their huge off-shore wind turbines in Thanet.

At the time of being built, their wind farm was the largest in the world.

The 100 turbines, based out to sea 12km from the coastline, can generate clean energy for up to 200,000 UK homes.

Watch a day in the life of a wind turbine technician

As these new structures are built, and with more planned, it leaves the dormant power station sites in Kent slowly collapsing from old age and disuse, becoming a forgotten relic of a bygone age.

A brief history of power stations

Long before clean energy was a word on anyone's lips, Thomas Edison changed the world in 1882 when his Electric Light Company opened the first coal-fired power station in London.

Turning fossil fuel into electricity which could power incandescent lamps in people's homes, Edison had discovered what people at the time considered something of a miracle.

Fast forward into the 20th century and the industry exploded, prompting gigantic versions of Edison's original concept to be constructed all over the country in a process which has come to be known as the second industrial revolution.

But Edison's original plant was quite small and did not have the ability to generate much power.

The great energy industrialists realised their power plants would need to be huge in order to generate enough electricity to meet growing demands across the country.

How yesterday's power stations worked

Those gargantuan towers were not just designed to be architecturally interesting - they played a core role in the generation of electricity.

Coal, oil and gas-powered plants create electricity by burning the materials up in a giant furnace, which then in turn heats a boiler until the water turns to steam.

The steam then flows around a turbine at a very high pressure, creating moving energy which is converted to a generator.

Those huge jug-shaped towers of old power stations like Richborough, near Sandwich, were designed to make the plants more efficient.

They would quickly cool the steam used to move the turbines, which would then trickle back down to the boiler for reuse.

As the energy industry has changed so have the processes to generate energy, which is why most of these impressive buildings have disappeared.

Richborough

The mammoth cooling towers of Richborough power station were constructed in 1958, just outside of Sandwich.

The station was coal-fired when it opened in 1962, but was eventually converted to oil and then a controversial oil-water emulsion.

Increasing fears of pollution to the atmosphere finally closed the plant in 1996.

In 2012, after dominating the East Kent skyline for more than 50 years, the iconic cooling towers and chimney at the former Richborough power station were demolished.

The dust from the collapsed rubble could be seen for miles around, as residents took photos and watched in awe.

Even though the towers are long gone, that wasn't the last time energy would be produced on the site.

In January 2019, the company Nemo Link officially opened a 140km energy cable stretching from the former power station site all the way to Belgium.

The link is made of a mix of subsea and underground cables, which allow electricity to flow in both directions between the two countries.

In the first year of operation, the lengthy cable has saved a daily average of 693 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Kingsnorth

There are now only four coal power stations left in the UK, with the deadline for all coal-fired production to be ceased by 2025.

But in the heyday of fossil-fuel power plants, Medway and the surrounding area played a huge part in energy generation.

After the National Grid was established in the 1920s, it allowed power stations to be built further away from places where energy was being consumed.

The Hoo Peninsula became known for its role in the growing fuel industry.

The landscape changed in 1963 when Kingsnorth power station was built, followed by a site on the Isle of Grain in 1971.

According to a survey by Historic England, when it was completed Kingsnorth was known as the largest dual-fire power station in Europe.

Dual-fire meant the plant could be run on both coal and oil.

As it was close to open water, unlike Richborough, so instead of having huge cooling towers the water would trickle back into the Medway estuary near Damhead Creek.

The neighbouring power station on Grain was at the time the largest oil-fired plant in Europe, where it was intended it would get its oil from the nearby BP oil refinery.

But the refinery closed in 1982, and due to increasing oil prices the plant was only used intermittently.

In 2008 the power station was at the centre of a huge controversy, as it planned to approve the construction of two brand new coal-fired plants, the first approved to be built for 30 years.

News of the proposal sent activists into a frenzy, resulting in a climate protest that hit the national news.

The Climate Camp saw more than 1,000 activists descend on a field in Hoo a few miles from the power station.

The activists did everything they could to try and shut the plant down, which resulted in a huge police operation reportedly costing the force £5 million.

Watch the moment Kingsnorth's chimney was brought down

In the end the recession killed off plans to build the new plants, and the existing power station closed in 2012.

In 2018, the Medway skyline changed forever as the 650ft chimney was demolished.

All 32,000 tonnes of concrete and steel came crumbling down, watched by hundreds of people all across the Medway Towns.

Littlebrook

Just last year, the chimney of the final coal and oil-powered plant still standing on the banks of the River Thames was also brought to the ground.

Littlebrook Power Station, in Dartford, has a history going all the way back to 1939, when the first of four plants was opened.

Coal used to be delivered to the power station by rail, and was soon followed by the construction of a further three stations.

The fourth, Littlebrook D, was an oil-powered plant which was in operation until 2015.

News of the eventual demolition upset some local residents, including Tony Mack, from Longfield, who threatened to chain himself to the chimney to save it.

Prior to the demolition of the 700ft chimney, a team of urban explorers climbed to the top under the cover of darkness.

Scott, from the group UrbeXUntold, said it was saddening to see the chimney - which had been the second highest in the UK - brought down.

"Absolutely gutted it's down," he said. "We managed a successful climb on Wednesday night, it was full of explosives. Proud to say we were the last ever explorers to climb it and see the view."

In December last year, the chimney came down in just 10 seconds from a controlled explosion.

At the time a road block was put in place on the QEII bridge, to make sure drivers weren't distracted during the explosion.

Watch the moment Littlebrook power station is demolished

The station, like many others across the country, was forced to cease operating after opting out of an EU directive which dealt with air pollutants created by the burning of fossil fuels.

When the county went nuclear

The county's only nuclear power station site sits looking out over what some people describe as Britain's only desert.

Dungeness power station was part of the first generation of nuclear power that came to the UK, heralding a new age for the industry.

Promising a new way of generating power without the pitfalls of oil and coal, the nuclear power industry offered the promise of energy minus the pollutants spilling into the atmosphere.

But accidents across the globe such as Chernobyl and Fukushima decreased the enthusiasm for nuclear power, in addition to the complex problem of where to store the waste products.

Nuclear waste, which is highly radioactive, has to be carefully stored and maintained, and there are strict regulations in place to make sure none of it ends up in the atmosphere.

Dungeness is actually a pair of power stations, A and B.

Dungeness A was the original generation of Magnox power station which was opened in 1965 and finally stopped generating power in 2006 - at that point it was the oldest nuclear power station in operation in the world.

Dungeness B was built in 1966 but didn't start generating energy until 1983.

It has two reactors, which part of the second wave of nuclear technology known as advanced gas-cooled reactors.

The power station was taken off the grid in September 2018 after cracks and erosion were found on pipes.

The station was due to be operational again by the end of 2019, but it still remains shutdown.

A spokesman from EDF, the company which now owns the plant, said: "The Dungeness B power station is undergoing a major two-year investment programme to help secure the station’s future to 2028 and potentially beyond.

"In recent months we have made good progress in addressing outstanding issues and the regulatory body has already approved much of this work.

"We still have some work to do on the station’s boilers before we ask for final restart approval from our regulator and so our latest position for estimated return to service is July 8 for Reactor 22 and July 18 for Reactor 21."

A decade ago a proposal for the development of a third station was considered, but eventually not included due to fears of coastal erosion and environmental concerns.

Dungeness is due to be decommissioned in 2028.

But despite the global rollback on nuclear energy, the owners of Dungeness are currently building a brand new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset - the history of nuclear energy is not over yet.

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