Britain says goodbye to coal

Britain’s last remaining coal-fired power station is set to close at the end of September, ending Britain’s 142-year reliance on fossil fuels to produce electricity.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant has been generating electricity since 1968 via its four coal-fired boilers, eight vast cooling towers and a 199m high chimney, which occupies a prominent place on the East Midlands skyline.

It is capable of powering around two million homes and has been the last station of its kind in the UK since September 2023, when Kilroot Power Station in Northern Ireland stops producing electricity from coal.

On September 30, Ratcliffe will close for the last time. Many of the 170 people employed by the plant’s owner, Uniper, will remain to help with the two-year decommissioning process.

Ratcliffe’s closure ends the country’s use of coal for electricity, which began with London’s Holborn Viaduct power station in 1882, the first of its kind in the world.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, which is due to close at the end of September, ending Britain’s 142-year reliance on fossil fuels to produce electricity. The power station has been generating electricity since 1968 via its four coal-fired boilers, eight vast cooling towers and a 199m high chimney, which occupies a prominent place on the East Midlands skyline. Photo credit should read: Jacob King/PA Wire

Coal continued to play a major role in the nationl power supply throughout the 20th century and accounted for around 80% of UK power in 1990, falling to 39% in 2012.

Since then, 15 coal-fired power stations have closed or switched fuels, and last year the fossil fuel accounted for just 1% of Britain’s supply, according to data from the National Grid’s Electricity System Operator.

Meanwhile, renewables, mainly wind and solar, now make up more than half of the mix, according to government statistics. Gas has also played a role in the shift, rising from 28% of the energy mix in 2012 to 34% last year.

Dhara Vyas, Deputy Chief Executive of Energy UK, said: “Ten years ago, coal was this country’s main source of energy – generating a third of our electricity.

“So to get to this point just a decade later, with coal’s contribution replaced by clean, low-carbon sources, is an incredible achievement.

“As we set ambitious new goals in the energy transition, it’s worth remembering that few believed then that such change at such a pace was possible.”

While Sweden and Belgium were among the first in Europe to phase out coal, the UK will be the first country in the G7 bloc of major world economies to achieve this goal.

France, by comparison, has given itself until 2027 to complete the phase-out, Canada will follow suit until 2030. Germany, on current plans, will not until 2038.

But there is the much bigger task of significantly reducing gas use and further stepping up renewables as the new Labor government seeks to achieve net-zero emissions from electricity generation by 2030.

The first steps were to set up a new state-owned energy investment company, GB Energy, and lift the de facto ban on new onshore wind projects in England’s planning system.

The government also handed out contracts for a new wave of green energy projects in early September, including onshore and offshore wind and solar farms, which officials said would generate enough power for 11 million homes, in its tender annual.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband recently said the transition to clean energy is not just about tackling climate change but also about energy security, after rising gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent consumers’ bills soaring in 2022 and 2023.

Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, said the rapid transition from coal to renewables “demonstrates how possible it is to make the transition to net zero electricity”.

Renewable energies are also cheaper than fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency reported that in 2023, an estimated 96 percent of newly installed onshore solar and wind plants had lower generation costs than new natural gas globally.

Ms Ralston said: “The British public have been burned by the over-reliance on gas for electricity and home heating during the ongoing gas price crisis and are keen to see a shift to renewables, not just to reduce emissions but to stabilize energy prices”.

As for coal, many countries may be phasing it out, but use of the fossil fuel for electricity still grew by 1.1 percent last year, according to energy analytics firm Ember.

This was mainly driven by China, which accounted for 54.9% of global coal-fired generation.

Still, China added seven times more renewable power capacity than coal last year, indicating that even the world’s biggest coal user is turning — finally — to clean energy.

Christine Shearer, research analyst at Global Energy Monitor, said “a lot of work remains to be done” to meet global phase-out targets, most of which target 2035 in developed countries.

She added: “The good news is that the UK is showing that once a country makes a clear commitment to phasing out coal, it often happens even faster than planned as the policy landscape becomes clear and paves the way for alternatives cheaper”.

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