UK Brings Forward Coal Power’s Use By Date

It’s official – the UK Government is set on bringing forward a deadline to phase out coal power entirely from Great Britain’s energy system.

The new deadline will be October 2024 – a full year earlier. The Government says it will introduce new legislation to achieve this at the “earliest opportunity”. It’s likely this will occur before the COP26 Climate Summit to be held in Glasgow in early November as that would be a super thing to bring to the event’s show and tell.

UK Energy and Climate Change Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan announced the new deadline yesterday, stating the UK was sending a clear signal to world that it’s leading the way in consigning coal power to the history books.

“Coal powered the industrial revolution 200 years ago, but now is the time for radical action to completely eliminate this dirty fuel from our energy system,” said Minister Trevelyan.

Coal power is already laying bleeding in the gutter in Great Britain, and its exsanguination is almost complete.

At the start of 2021, there were just three coal burning power stations still operating. So far this year, Drax has pulled the pin on commercial coal power generation at its two remaining coal units in North Yorkshire, although it still has some contracts for the winter that may come into play. West Burton in Nottinghamshire will be decommissioned from September next year – but only two of the four coal units are operational and just for meeting capacity market commitments.

That leaves the 2MW Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, which really is a clunker – it commenced operations in 1963.

Coal Power’s Demise And The Ascent Of Renewables

In 1950, coal power accounted for 97 per cent of all electricity generated in the UK. In 2012, its share had dropped to 40%. By 2019, it plummeted to just 5% and last year, 1.8%.

The UK generated 43.1% of its electricity from renewable sources last year, made up of

• Wind – 24.2%
• Bioenergy – 12.6%
• Solar energy – 4.2%
• Hydro – 2.2%

Nuclear power made up 16.1% of the UK’s electricity generation in 2020.

How Australia Stacks Up

The UK is calling on all nations to accelerate the phase out of coal power. It’s assumed “all nations” includes Australia, even though our government appears to believe we’re somehow a special case and there’s no real rush.

So, how are we doing? In 2019, Australia’s electricity generation was made up of:

• Coal – 56%
• Gas – 21%
• Wind – 7%
• Solar power – 7%
• Hydro – 5%
• Oil – 2%

Added: It’s been pointed out the figures above taken from here, conflict with figures from OpenNEM (even taking into account WA).

Total electricity generation in Australia in 2019 was around 265 terawatt-hours (again, OpenNEM paints a different picture), so coal accounted for approximately 148.4 TWh – 148,400,000,000 kilowatt hours. It’s a lot of coal power and a lot of emissions.

And then there’s the coal we dig up (and gas we extract) to send to other countries to burn for electricity generation. Australia is truly the Typhoid Mary of fossil fuel emissions and the misery and death they have, are and will continue to bring. Or, to put it another way, we’re the grim reaper with a tan.