Thanks to nuclear energy

Last British coal-fired power station closes

(Bild: APA/Associated Press)

After more than 140 years, the UK is to stop generating electricity from coal. The last coal-fired power station in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, south-west of Nottingham, will close on Tuesday. This makes the United Kingdom the first wealthy industrialized country to phase out coal. 

The think tank E3G wrote a few days ago: "The birthplace of coal-fired power generation is about to become coal-free."

The Conservative government of then Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought forward the coal phase-out by another year in June 2021. In future, only clean electricity is to be used.

Secretary of State for Energy: "New era of good jobs"
Coal workers can be proud that they have powered the country for more than 140 years, said Energy Secretary Michael Shanks from the Social Democratic Labor Party, which has been in government since the beginning of July. "The coal era may be ending, but a new era of good jobs in the energy sector is only just beginning for our country." These include wind power and new technologies such as CO2 capture and storage.

This chart shows how coal power has dominated electricity generation in the UK over the decades:

 UK aims to become 'clean energy superpower'
"This work will help strengthen our energy security and independence, protect families from international fossil fuel price rises, creating jobs and tackling climate change," said Shanks. The UK should become "a clean energy superpower".

Nuclear power enables coal phase-out
A good 100 years ago, almost all electricity in the UK was generated by burning coal. Today, coal hardly plays a role at all. In 2023, it accounted for 1.3 percent of the energy mix. The UK's significantly earlier coal phase-out compared to Germany is also possible because the country continues to rely on nuclear power to generate energy. In Germany, the coal phase-out has been agreed for 2038. The Ampel had planned to "ideally" bring the date forward to 2030.

Since the first power station opened in 1882, the UK's coal-fired power stations have burned a total of 4.6 billion tons of coal and emitted 10.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) - more than most countries have ever produced from all sources, according to the climate portal "Carbon Brief".

"We are way ahead on coal," UK climate change adviser Chris Stark told The Times. "Way ahead of other G7 economies." The head of power plant operator Uniper, Michael Lewis, told the paper that the closure of Ratcliffe was "an enormously big deal - locally, nationally, internationally". The plant was opened in 1968. In June, a train brought the last delivery of 1,650 tons of coal.