Is Britain finally ready to ditch coal?

Wednesday saw Britain pass a landmark moment in the transition away from fossil fuels, as the UK went a full week without using coal power for the first since the reign of Queen Victoria.

What happened?

According to the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO), which runs the network in England, Scotland and Wales, the last coal generator came off grid at 1.24pm on 1 May, meaning the UK reached a week without coal at 1.24pm on Wednesday.

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The new record marks the first coal-free week since the world's first coal-fired plant opened in London in 1882.

“While this is the first time this has happened, I predict it will become the new normal,” said Fintan Slye, director of ESO.

“As more and more renewables come on to our energy system, coal-free runs like this are going to be a regular occurrence. We believe that by 2025 we will be able to fully operate Great Britain’s electricity system with zero carbon,” he said.

What does this mean?

The UK has committed to phasing out coal-fired power entirely by 2025, “helped by a ramp up in renewable energy sources such as offshore wind, while the EU and the UK government have sought to make carbon emissions more expensive, causing alternatives to become more competitive,” says the Financial Times.

Government figures show that renewable energy – wind, solar, bioenergy and hydropower – accounted for 27.5% of electricity generation in 2018, while gas made up 43.9% of supply, with the remainder coming from nuclear and coal.

With gas, nuclear and wind all now providing more power to the grid, energy use has experienced “a sharp change since the beginning of this decade when coal was still one of the UK’s primary sources of electricity generation,” says the FT.

However, “coal-fired power stations still play a major part in the UK’s energy system as a backup during high demand but the increasing use of renewable energy sources such as wind power means it is required less,” says The Guardian.

What next?

Business Secretary Greg Clark hailed the milestone as “a huge leap forward in our world-leading efforts to reduce emissions” but added “we're not stopping there”.

“The government is yet to confirm whether it will accept the recommendations of last week's landmark report from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and introduce a legally-binding goal to make the UK a net zero emission economy by 2050,” says Business Green. “But a number of leading ministers have hinted strongly that they are minded to do so and now regard the threat from climate change as constituting an ‘emergency’”.

“Reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2025 was one of the calls from the Extinction Rebellion,” says Sky News, “alongside a citizen's assembly to oversee the changes necessary to achieve this”.

Slye said wide-ranging work was ongoing to ensure the grid can cope as coal power plants are phased out and reliance on gas power is also curbed as part of a net zero emission electricity network.

In a bid to achieve this, the government last week announced a modest increase in funding for the next round of offshore wind farm projects, “but industry groups continue to argue the cost of deploying clean energy is being amplified by the government's refusal to let onshore wind and solar projects compete for price support contracts” says Business Green.