Beyond coal: the future of the UK’s electricity supply

A quiet revolution took place in the early hours of this morning, probably while you were sleeping. You went to bed in one kind of country and woke up in another.

The difference is largely invisible but undeniably huge: yesterday Britain’s last coal-fired power station was still operational and until this morning it wasn’t.

As of today, and for the first time in 142 years, the UK will no longer generate electricity from burning coal. Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, near Nottingham, began generating power from coal in 1967.

Its official closure, at one minute after midnight last night, is aptly described as “a huge deal – locally, nationally, internationally” by Michael Lewis, CEO of Uniper, which owns the plant.

Chris Smith, who has worked at the factory for 28 years, told the BBC it was “a very sad moment” as he and his long-time colleagues had “done everything we could to keep it running”.

For those of us unaffected by the immediate local impact, the plant’s closure represents an enormous moment in our national story. In 2010, coal provided just under 40% of the nation’s electricity. As of today, that number has dropped to zero – having been declining (some would say impressively) in recent years.

In its place, renewable energy now accounts for between 40 and 50% of electricity generation. This turnaround from a dependence on coal to a new dependence on renewables is being hailed as a political triumph and a world-class environmental achievement, for obvious reasons.

But such celebrations are premature.

Without a truly dramatic (expensive, controversial and complex) expansion of infrastructure and storage capacity to support renewable energy, we remain vulnerable to its vagaries. And as long as it remains, gas (especially imported gas) is increasingly important.

We should also pursue a nuclear future with all the enthusiasm and zeal currently directed toward wind.

The truth is that it is too early to say whether the closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar is evidence of political success or just the consequence of political choices.

There is a fine line between the two positions, and for now we should recognize that while closure is certainly the end of an era, it should not be seen as an end in itself.

After AM city

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