Britain "Consigns Coal Power to the History Books" as Ban is Brought Forward to 2024
upstart writes:
Britain 'consigns coal power to the history books' as ban is brought forward to 2024:
The UK government has brought forward the ban on the use of unabated coal by a year, so that from 1 October 2024, Britain will no longer use coal within its energy system.
Energy and climate change minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan announced the change ahead of a Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) Europe roundtable meeting today. It follows significant progress in moving the UK away from the fossil fuel in recent years, with just 1.8% of the energy mix coming from coal in 2020, as opposed to 40% a decade ago.
The government launched a consultation in February 2020 on the possibility of bringing forward the phase-out date for coal generation forward from 2025. Since then, more coal power plants have continued to shutter with EDF announcing in March that its West Burton A station will close in September 2022. This follows Drax's two remaining coal plants closing in March 2021, and SSE's last coal-fired power station, Fiddler's Ferry, and RWE's Aberthaw B coal-fired power station, both closing in March 2020.
Uniper's Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant is set to be the sole coal-fired power station in the UK from 2022.
Renewable energy capacity has continued to soar, helping push coal off the grid. 2020 was dubbed the 'greenest year' ever by various groups as wind and solar continued to smash records.
[...] "The next decade will be make, or break, for our planet and the most powerful way we can make a difference is to end our reliance on coal."
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