Last year, Britain had its first 18-days-long coal-free streak in over a hundred years. This year, it broke that record because there was a drop in demand for electricity brought about by the efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. Coal-fired power plants were the first to close. Last month we reported that the coal-free period had reached a month. Now, we are here to tell you that it surpassed that and has reached two months!
Indeed, this energy milestone is mostly due to the ceasing of manufacturing and increased levels of people working from home. The situation caused electricity demand to plummet by about 15-20%. However, renewable energy sources also play a part. A growing number of facilities have come online, and this spring’s been sunny and windy, so solar farms and wind turbines have contributed more than ever to the power grid.
Doug Parr, the chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, told The Independent:
The rapid decline in such a polluting fuel is truly cause to celebrate. This achievement would once have been unimaginable but the UK rightly took the chance to be a world leader in phasing out coal. That’s a lesson we must take with us as we seek to build a new economy when moving forward from the pandemic. There are plenty of other sectors where a green recovery offers us the chance to show similar leadership whilst creating jobs and truly tackling the climate emergency.
Just imagine, only a decade ago, coal-fired power stations contributed up to 40% and solar only 3% of the energy delivered to the grid. Even as recently as 2015, that figure for coal was over 50% many days of the year. Then, almost as swiftly as night turns to day, solar is providing 10% and wind over 48% of the UK’s power (in recent weeks). Most impressive of all is how, in 2019, coal contributed just 2.1% of the nation’s total power mix.
Analyst Jess Ralston, from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, told The Independent:
Yet another record-breaking coal-free run in Britain highlights the fact that the fuel is simply not needed in a modern energy system. At the same time, the surge in renewable generation and extensive plans to expand the nation’s fleet of cheap and clean energy sources show that there will only be one direction from here. Recent tests of an increasingly flexible energy system during sunny bank holidays in lockdown, all of which have been dealt with without issue, show that the grid is ready to move quicker than many thought possible. The question is now whether policymakers keep pace with this to encourage further investment into clean energy sources.
A focus on new technology, such as batteries, as the country recovers from the current economic shock will only accelerate these long-term trends and will see us move past the end of coal and begin to look to the end of reliance on other fossil fuels.
The UK has a deadline to abandon coal as a power-generation source by 2024. There are only three coal-fired power plants left. Drax’s station in Yorkshire is set to close in March 2021, and the other two may shut down before the deadline too. This coal-free run proves that letting go of coal shouldn’t be a problem.
Next, the country has to deal with its dependence on gas, another dirty fossil fuel. During the coal-free run, gas contributed around a third of the power to the grid. Nevertheless, renewables still generated more than all fossil fuels combined. So, there is hope that the government should be able to plan a phase-out of this fossil fuel quickly too.
Green Party energy spokesperson Andrew Cooper told The Independent:
This is clearly good news for the UK but it is only one step in the right direction. Getting rid of coal is certainly part of the solution to tackling climate change but there is still a long way to go and we have not seen a clear plan from the government of how it intends to move things forward.
We still get a large amount of electricity by burning gas, so we must see action to swiftly reduce the amount of energy we generate from this fossil fuel. We also need to see much more action being taken to promote renewable energy through further investment in solar and policies to support onshore wind. Finally, there is also a question around the wood pellets Drax power plant has been using as a replacement to coal. The power plant should provide robust proof that the millions of tons of wood pellets it uses are from sustainable sources.
The government has been called upon by citizens and businesses to implement a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis. It will take a substantial amount of effort for the nation to meet its legally binding net zero emissions targets, but its possible, and this two-month coal-free milestone is the proof!
