UCG(underground-coal-gasification) has been around for many years. The Russians have been powering their street lights with it for donkeys years. It is being perfected here on a small scale and in Australia, Asia on a massive scale, they are calling it Business Gas over there.
With our coal seams being the thickest and most abundant at the coast, around the St Margaret's area, that is where I believe any power plant would be sited.
Or, as our coal goes under the channel and into France, there is a possibility for UCG at sea.
Watty will say I am scaremongering with St Margaret's but those are the facts.