Great Britain ends coal power production with Ratcliffe shutdown
BBC reported that Great Britain will cease producing electricity from coal, ending a 142-year dependence on this fossil fuel. The country's last coal-fired power plant, in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, will be ceremoniously shut down on Tuesday.
The Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant ended electricity production on September 30. On Tuesday, it will be ceremoniously shut down. Most recently, it belonged to the German company Uniper and could generate 2,000 MW of power. Since September last year, it was the only active coal power plant in Great Britain. It had been operating since 1968.
As BBC emphasizes, this marks a milestone in the country's ambitions to reduce Great Britain's contribution to climate change.
"Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, producing the most greenhouse gases when burned," it reads. Great Britain was the cradle of coal energy, and as of Tuesday, it becomes the first major economy to abandon it. It is the first country in the G7 to step away from coal.
"It is truly an extraordinary day, after all, Great Britain built all its strength on coal, that is, on the industrial revolution," said Lord Deben, the longest-serving secretary of the environment.
It was recalled that Thomas Edison built the world's first coal power plant (Holborn Viaduct) in London in 1882, "bringing light to the streets of the capital" of Great Britain.
"The end of an era"
Coal quickly became the dominant energy source in Great Britain and beyond. In the 1920s, it accounted for almost 100% of the British energy mix, in the first half of the 1950s - over 90%, and even in the 1980s - about 70%. In the 1990s, coal began to be displaced in the national energy mix by gas, but it remained the foundation of the British energy grid. In 2012, it accounted for 39% of electricity production.
However, in the last dozen or so years, there has been a very rapid shift away from coal in favour of mostly renewable energy sources. In 2008, Great Britain established its first legally binding climate targets, and in 2015, then Energy and Climate Change Minister Amber Rudd announced that the country would end the use of coal energy within a decade. While in 2010 only 7% of energy came from renewable sources, in the first half of 2024, this share rose to over 50%, setting a new record.
Today's closure of the Ratcliffe power plant marks the end of an era, and coal sector workers can be proud of their work that provided our country with energy for over 142 years stated Deputy Energy Minister Michael Shanks.
"As a country, we owe them a debt of gratitude. The coal era may be ending, but a new era of good jobs in energy for our country is just beginning. The government's mission to become a clean energy superpower involves creating good jobs in wind energy and new technologies such as carbon capture and storage," he added.
