The industrial revolution was powered by it, but now coal isn’t welcome here in the UK any more as net zero policies grip the country. Meanwhile the likes of China and India depend ever more heavily on it as their economies expand, while UK electricity prices continue their inexorable rise.
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The final coal-fired power station left in the UK will be shut down later on Monday amid the transition to renewable energy, says Sky News.
The closure of Uniper-owned Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire will bring to an end a 142-year history of burning fossil fuel to produce electricity in the country.
The UK was the first, in 1882, to utilise coal for public power generation.
It will now be the first G7 nation to end its use as the void from gradual coal-fired closures has been filled by green alternatives including solar and offshore wind.
Coal accounted for around 80% of the country’s power needs in 1990 but has been phased out under efforts to combat climate change.
That transition, however, led by a continued dependence on volatile natural gas prices, has come at a cost with International Energy Agency figures showing the UK has the highest industrial power prices in the developed world.
It explains the competitiveness problem within UK manufacturing and, pertinently, the end of production at the country’s largest virgin steelworks on Monday.
Ratcliffe-on-Soar has been the last coal-fired power station standing in the UK since September 2023.
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The Labour government is seeking to hit net zero emissions from electricity generation by 2030.
Full article here.
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Image: Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station [credit: Crep17166 @ Wikipedia]
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
September 30, 2024 at 08:38AM
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