UK Ends 142-Year Coal Power Era in Industry's Birthplace (bbc.com) 24
AmiMoJo writes: The UK is about to stop producing any electricity from burning coal -- ending its 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel. The country's last coal power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, finishes operations on Monday after running since 1967. This marks a major milestone in the country's ambitions to reduce its contribution to climate change. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel producing the most greenhouse gases when burnt.
The UK was the birthplace of coal power, and from tomorrow it becomes the first major economy to give it up. The first coal-fired power station in the world, the Holborn Viaduct power station, was built in 1882 in London by the inventor Thomas Edison -- bringing light to the streets of the capital. In the early 1990s, coal began to be forced out of the electricity mix by gas, but coal still remained a crucial component of the UK grid for the next two decades. In 2012, it still generated 39% of the UK's power.
In 2010, renewables generated just 7% of the UK's power. By the first half of 2024, this had grown to more than 50% -- a new record. The rapid growth of green power meant that coal could even be switched off completely for short periods, with the first coal-free days in 2017.
The UK was the birthplace of coal power, and from tomorrow it becomes the first major economy to give it up. The first coal-fired power station in the world, the Holborn Viaduct power station, was built in 1882 in London by the inventor Thomas Edison -- bringing light to the streets of the capital. In the early 1990s, coal began to be forced out of the electricity mix by gas, but coal still remained a crucial component of the UK grid for the next two decades. In 2012, it still generated 39% of the UK's power.
In 2010, renewables generated just 7% of the UK's power. By the first half of 2024, this had grown to more than 50% -- a new record. The rapid growth of green power meant that coal could even be switched off completely for short periods, with the first coal-free days in 2017.
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How?
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Folly.
When the winds stop blowing over Blighty and the Sun stops shining over it consistently (it has been inconsistent at that for Centuries), them Proles be screwed.
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Wel, fool, are you being paid to post crap like this, or are you stupid enough to do it for free?
And, actually, yes, after we went to Worldcon in Glasgow last month, we took the train around the UK, and in both Scotland and England, we saw a *lot* of rooftop solar, and four? five? more? solar fields.
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I can't tell from the photo...is this the same plant with the stacks as was shot for the Pink Floyd Animal's cover?
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What if they start generating energy from the fog?
Sigh. (Score:3)
Only at least 42 years too late.
And still the majority of UK electricity is generated by CCGT (as a hint, the last two stand for "gas turbine").
Another 42 years before we get rid of that too?
Re:Sigh. (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Sigh. (Score:5, Informative)
The new Hinckley Point C station is due to open around 2030, 20 years after work on it started.
It will produce 3.2GW from two reactors.
For comparison, China installed 609GW of renewables in 2023, and nearly 30GWh of battery storage. In 1/20th of the time and doubtless a fraction of the cost per unit of energy.
I'm sure there's some excuse why we can't, but given they are installing renewable capacity 4000x faster than Hinckley is, even accounting for capacity factor and storage and anything else you can think of...
Oh and for reference demand at the moment in the UK is 37GW.
Re: Sigh. (Score:3)
You honestly don't know why the cost is less in China? Safety rules and the fact that they won't be meaningfully held to account if a major disaster happens accounts for much of the difference. Profit motives and excessive red tape is another. (Noting the word excessive, hard to define)
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Everyone is cheering now, hooray! But when Margaret Thatcher did it she was vilified. Waiting for someone, anyone, to admit their error.
Arthur Scargill must be remembered as the climate destroyer he was.
RIP Brass Birmingham (Score:3)
Great days are ahead if this gets done in time. (Score:2)
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I mean for the world. Kudos to UK for getting it done relatively soon compared to most.
Easy, buddy. You're going off-message. There are no more good days ahead. We must have full buy-in in the belief that it's too late, lest other countries get pesky ideas that may impact short-term profit potential.
Re: Eagerly awaiting the reports of blackouts (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh yeah, you didn't think it through. Just because they are shuttering coal does not mean other forms of energy from other sources of fossil fuels have been eliminated.
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Enjoy your extended irrelevancy. I'm sure the US will join you shortly, seeing as how our cars are shit, and now our planes are shit too.
If you haven't noticed, largely because of fossil fuels, the entire southern and eastern coasts of the US are turning into flooded shit. Not to mention that the west is turning into burnt shit. Do you have a solution to that other than the usual 5X over budget and behind schedule "Derp nukular!!!!" boondoggles?
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D-: Please identify the glaring logical fallacy in your statement and post your correction for partial credit.
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This isn't just regular stupid; this is advanced stupid. What a fucking moron.
Re:Eagerly awaiting the reports of blackouts (Score:4, Informative)
The sun finally has set on the British Empire, and it's own people conspired to make it happen, by being bamboozled by the Leftists. Tell me in 20 years how that worked out.
This seems an odd comment from someone who I assume is American. There's not usually a lot of enthusiasm for the British Empire in the former colonies. Also why wait 20 years? The sun set more than half a century ago, so I'm not sure another 20 years will make much difference. From wikipedia [wikipedia.org]'s rather good article:
At first, British politicians believed it would be possible to maintain Britain's role as a world power at the head of a re-imagined Commonwealth, but by 1960 they were forced to recognise that there was an irresistible "wind of change" blowing. Their priorities changed to maintaining an extensive zone of British influence and ensuring that stable, non-Communist governments were established in former colonies. In this context, while other European powers such as France and Portugal waged costly and unsuccessful wars to keep their empires intact, Britain generally adopted a policy of peaceful disengagement from its colonies, although violence occurred in Malaya, Kenya and Palestine. Between 1945 and 1965, the number of people under British rule outside the UK itself fell from 700 million to 5 million, 3 million of whom were in Hong Kong.