By this time next week, the UK will be turning off the last coal-fired power plant. For the government to succeed with its climate plans, stations burning natural gas may be next.
Britain’s shift from being a fossil-fuel pioneer to phasing out coal 10 years ahead of the Group of Seven’s deadline may guide other nations trying to purge energy sources that cause climate change.
The world’s first coal-fired power station was built in London in 1882, yet the decision to move away from the dirtiest fuel was a relatively easy one. With the help of carbon prices that added costs for every metric ton of CO2 released into the atmosphere, gas-fired power plants gradually took over.
Falling fuel prices in the US have seen a similar shift take place on the American grid, though coal is still an important energy source.
New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to have a “zero-carbon electricity system” by decade’s end. That’s a tight timeline for nearly eliminating gas, which provided about a third of the power last year.
Britain’s last active coal plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, helped generate 3.4% of all electricity produced in the UK at the start of the week, well above average levels throughout the year…
The National Grid ESO had five coal plants on standby last winter to add extra capacity at times of peak demand. This winter, only Ratcliffe has remained online after the four other units closed.
Except when you need electricity on cold, windless nights. I clearly remember the polar vortex event of January 2019. It got down to -25°F here and the air was very still. It lasted for 4-5 days.
True, no system is without mistakes. At the same time, the primary goal of an electrical utility is to provide constant reliable power. Shutting down baseload generating stations is moving away from that goal. At the very least the UK should already have had in place a megaton of batteries and long-term, first-in-line power agreements with utilities on the continent. But such things don’t exist.
That is definitely not the primary goal, otherwise all power plants with greenhouse gas emissions would be closed, and we wouldn’t be here exchanging pixels.
Then the question becomes how is the change being managed? Recognizing that reliable, steady power is the #1 priority is important. What are the system costs? It is not enough just to say “oh, the cost of solar panels has dropped X%.”
I think it is important to point out that things are not all rainbows and unicorns.