Coal. It powered the Industrial Revolution, fuelling Britain’s rise as a global empire. So it was hugely symbolic this week when the UK became the first advanced economy to quit the black stuff.
Ratcliffe-on-Soar, the country’s last-remaining coal-fired power station (pictured), closed for good on Monday, with many employees staying on to decommission the Nottinghamshire plant – a job expected to take two years.
Coal’s demise in the UK was rapid. In 2012, it generated 40% of the nation’s electricity, but climate policy quickly changed that. First came the EU’s carbon trading scheme, which forced power companies to buy credits if they wanted to emit carbon. Then came the UK’s carbon tax, introduced in 2013 and ruinous for coal.
“Because coal is so polluting it became much more expensive to generate [electricity with] and just couldn’t compete with renewables,” Frankie Mayo, lead UK analyst at the energy thinktank Ember, told Positive News. “Interestingly, coal was replaced by wind and solar, not gas. It shows the speed at which this transition can happen.”
The resultant falls in emissions have been massive, added Mayo. “Since 2012, UK power sector emissions have fallen by three quarters – that’s a huge reduction.”
Image: Alan Murray-Rust