National Grid builds first T-Pylon in Somerset

National Grid has built the world’s first T-Pylon in Somerset as part of its £900m Hinkley Connection project.

The new pylons are the first newly designed pylons to be introduced in Great Britain for nearly a century.

Aiming to connect low carbon electricity from Hinkley Point C Nuclear power station to six million UK homes and businesses, the project will see 116 new T-Pylons running along a 57km route between Bridgwater and Portbury, other than through the Mendip Hills AONB where the new connection goes underground. 249 electricity pylons will also be removed between Bridgwater and Avonmouth.

The 35-metre high T-Pylons have a single pole and T-shaped cross arms which hold the wires in a diamond ‘earring’ shape. They are a third shorter than National Grid’s traditional lattice pylons and use less land.

Responding to demand for new energy infrastructure to support the UK’s net zero goals, this development was the result of a 2011 competition organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects and government, won by Danish firm Bystrup with the T-Pylon design.

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