UK starts era of coal-free electricity production

• 2 months ago (2024-09-23)
• David Flin

Coal 299 Europe 1094

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The UK’s last coal-fired power plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, will close at the end of September 2024, and will mark the first period for nearly 150 years that the country has had no such plants.

The energy think-tank Ember said that the policies of the UK government incentivised a rapid decline of the use of coal, bringing about a large drop in carbon emissions from electricity generation from 160 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2012 to 41 MtCO2e in 2023. The UK is aiming to achieve zero CO2 emissions from the power sector by 2030.

Coal-fired power provided 40 per cent of UK generation in 2012, shrinking to 2 per cent by 2019, and will reach zero by October 2024. In total, 15 coal-fired power plants have either closed or switched fuel use over that period, and 25 have been closed since 2000. Coal was replaced mainly by growth in wind and solar power. Ember said: “As coal generation fell, wind and solar generation increased from 6 to 34 per cent of UK generation, while gas grew from 28 to 34 per cent.”

Ember attributes the UK’s rapid journey away from coal to six main factors:

• Tightening decarbonisation targets.
• Introducing a rising minimum carbon price to reveal hidden costs of coal.
• Support for offshore wind.
• Market reforms for renewables.
• Investment in the electricity grid.
• Reducing demand through more efficient domestic electric appliances and homes.