The UK has marked a historic second in its vitality transition by shuttering the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Energy Station in Nottinghamshire, its final remaining coal energy plant.
“That is the ultimate chapter of a remarkably swift transition from the nation that began the Industrial Revolution,” mentioned Phil MacDonald, managing director of worldwide vitality assume tank Ember.
The world’s first coal energy plant opened in London in 1882, and as just lately as 2012, coal powered 39% of the UK’s electrical energy provide. Nonetheless, Ember’s knowledge reveals how this dropped quickly within the following years, remaining at 2% or decrease since 2019.
Ember’s report, “The UK’s journey to a coal energy phase-out,” outlines the 5 key elements that facilitated the UK’s speedy exit from coal: asserting a 2025 coal exit a decade prematurely, placing a worth on carbon, backing offshore wind, market reforms to encourage renewable vitality, and investing within the grid.
“The UK supplied each the carrots and the sticks,” mentioned Phil MacDonald, managing director of Ember. “It’s vital to sign that polluting sources have an finish date, but in addition to supply an enabling surroundings to construct the brand new clear vitality system.”
The UK predominantly changed coal with wind and photo voltaic, with out rising reliance on gasoline. The nation is now focusing on a completely decarbonized energy system by 2030.
The UK’s coal phase-out has introduced many advantages, decreasing each emissions and prices. The speedy decline in coal energy since 2012 averted 880 million tonnes of emissions, which is equal to greater than double the UK’s whole economy-wide emissions in 2023. Ember calculates that the alternative of coal with wind and photo voltaic averted an estimated £2.9 billion in prices.
The UK’s final coal plant closure implies that greater than a 3rd of Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Growth (OECD) nations are actually coal-free, with three-quarters anticipated to remove coal energy by 2030, aligning with international local weather objectives to restrict warming to 1.5C.
Coal now accounts for simply 17% of electrical energy technology in OECD nations, down from 36% at its peak in 2007. The speedy development in photo voltaic and wind was accountable for 87% of the autumn in coal throughout this era.
“As soon as, coal energy was a byword for industrial development,” continued Mr MacDonald. “Now clear vitality is driving economies – and never simply in high-income nations, however all through the world.”
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