Britain bids farewell to the coal age after 140 years

Arab Weather - A report published by the British newspaper "Financial Times" said that Britain's reliance on coal-fired energy is approaching its end after 140 years. The report pointed to the "Ratcliffe-on-Soar" power station in the "East Midlands" as an example of this transformation.

From Coal Efficiency to Clean Energy Era

The station's steel boiler walls, which rose 50 metres, could withstand temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius as pulverised coal was pumped from 36 burners.

But according to plant manager Peter O’Grady, the once-efficient plant is now cold. Built in the 1960s and capable of powering about two million homes, the plant has passed its peak and is running less. It has been replaced by gas-fired power plants, solar panels and wind turbines as part of the UK’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

At the end of this month, Ratcliffe will close, marking a major step in the government’s efforts to decarbonise its electricity supply by 2030, as part of its wider goal of cutting emissions to net zero by 2050. The UK is home to the world’s first coal-fired power station, which opened in London in 1882, and is now on track to become the first G7 nation to stop using coal to generate electricity, a year ahead of the target set in 2015 by the previous government.

In contrast, Germany plans to do so by 2038, Canada by 2030, and Italy by the end of 2025, excluding Sardinia. The UK government brought forward the deadline in 2021 under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as it sought to showcase the UK’s climate leadership ahead of the UN climate summit in Glasgow.

However, the government has asked several plants that were scheduled to close in the fall of 2022 to stay in operation after the Ukraine war in February 2022 raised concerns about a gas crisis.

In 1990, coal provided 80% of the UK’s electricity, but that had fallen to just 1% last year, while 34.7% came from gas, 32.8% from wind and solar, 11.6% from bioenergy and 13.8% from nuclear. Government subsidies, falling production costs and technological advances have supported the growth of renewable electricity and improved the system’s ability to cope with fewer coal plants.

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Sources:

Financial Times