On Monday, the UK saw the closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar, the last working coal-fired power station that had been in operation since 1968. The closure of the 2,000 MW power plant marked the end of its history. Coal has played a central role in Britain’s electricity system, starting with the opening of the first coal-fired power station in 1882, providing more than 90 per cent of total electricity in some years.
However, a number of factors, including the growth of natural gas power plants and renewable energy, pollution control, carbon pricing, and government goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, mean that coal will remain in decline in the long term. is in decline.
From boom to bust
The importance of coal to the UK electricity grid cannot be overstated. In 1956 it provided over 90 per cent of Britain’s electricity. Total power generation continued to increase thereafter, reaching 212 terawatt-hours of production by 1980. And the construction of a new coal-fired power plant was being considered. The most recent was in the late 2000s. According to the Carbon Brief organization’s excellent timeline for the use of coal in the UK, continued use of coal with carbon capture is being considered.
However, a number of factors are slowing the use of the fuel ahead of the UK’s climate change targets, some of which are similar to the situation in the US. At the time, the European Union, which included Britain, enacted new rules to deal with acid rain, which raised the cost of coal-fired power plants. Additionally, the development of oil and gas deposits in the North Sea has provided access to alternative fuels. Meanwhile, significant increases in efficiency and the relocation of some heavy industry overseas have significantly reduced British demand.
These changes affected the use of coal and also reduced employment in coal mining. The mining sector has at times been very influential in British politics, but the decline of coal has reduced the number of people employed in the sector, reducing its political influence.
All of these were reducing coal use even before governments started taking aggressive steps to curb climate change. However, by 2005, the EU introduced a carbon trading system that imposes a cost on emissions. The UK government adopted national emissions targets by 2008, and they have been maintained and strengthened by both Labor and Conservative governments ever since until Rishi Sunak was voted out before changing Britain’s trajectory. What started as a pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 now requires the UK to reach net zero by that date.
These include a carbon price floor that ensures that fossil fuel power plants pay sufficient emissions costs to facilitate the transition to renewable energy, even if the EU’s carbon trading scheme price is too low for it; is included. And that change has been rapid, with total renewable energy generation nearly tripling in the decade since 2013, largely helped by the growth of offshore wind power.
How to clean up the power sector
This trend was significant enough that the UK announced in 2015 that it would aim to phase out coal in 2025, despite the fact that the first coal-free electricity grid would be two years away. I did. But two years after that milestone, no coal-fired power stations were operating in the UK for weeks.
It will be important that other countries follow the UK’s lead if we are to limit the worst effects of climate change. It is therefore worth considering how countries that have become relatively new to coal use can cope with such a rapid transition. There are some elements that are uniquely British that cannot be replicated everywhere. The first is that most of the coal infrastructure is very old, Ratcliffe-on-Soar dates from the 1960s and would have needed replacement anyway. Part of the reason coal holdings have aged is the local availability of relatively cheap natural gas, which may not be the case in other regions, making coal generation economically viable. is applying physical pressure.
