The past two months have been loaded with record-breaking coal-free periods for Britain. In April, it had its first coal-free period of 90 hours. Then, there was another coal-free period of just over a week which ended on May 9. It was the longest period without coal ever… until now. Beginning May 17, Britain went over two weeks without coal!
Fintan Slye, director of the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO), said the British record for solar power had also been broken this month. On 14 May, Britain generated a quarter of its energy from the sun – the largest proportion yet.
Mr. Slye said:
“As more and more renewables come on to the system, we’re seeing things progress at an astonishing rate. 2018 was our greenest year to date, and so far, 2019 looks like it has the potential to beat it.”
This historical feat marks the only coal-free fortnight since the world’s first coal-powered plant opened in London in 1882. It has been just two years since the UK marked its first full day without burning fossil fuel.
Mr. Slye added:
“As we predicted when we first broke the record for a week of no coal generation at the start of the month, events such as today’s will become the ‘new normal’. As we move towards 2025, we believe that we will be able to operate Great Britain’s electricity system with zero carbon generation.”
Over the 18 days, 6 hours, when coal was not used, solar, wind, nuclear, gas and some hydro-generated power took up the slack, the ESO said. On average gas made up nearly 40% of Britain’s suppliers, nuclear 20%, wind 13% and other sources making up the rest. Chris Skidmore, Energy, and clean growth minister said Britain was “reaping the rewards” of investment in renewable energy.
Mr. Skidmore said:
“The UK has the largest offshore wind capacity on the planet, can generate more than a quarter of our electricity needs from the sun and last year more than half of our electricity came from low carbon sources.”
However, as wonderful as this news is and regardless of the coal phaseout, the UK is far from meeting targets that would get it to net zero emissions by 2050 – as was demanded earlier this month by the government’s climate change advisers.
The government plans to phase out the UK’s last coal-fired plants by 2025 to reduce carbon emissions. Mr. Slye said there is “still a lot of work to do”. Britain continues to pump out thousands of tons of CO2 per hour. In 2017, the latest year for which figures are available, the UK emitted a total of 367 million tonnes of the heat-trapping gas.
The biggest source of energy remains natural gas, by far. Although less harmful than coal, it is still just another fossil fuel that pumps carbon into the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. The 2008 Climate Change Act requires gas emissions to be reduced by 80% in 2050 compared with 1990 levels, and for that to happen natural gas has to go too.
Update: The article originally stated the number of days without coal was 16 days, this was changed to 18 days, 6 hours as the length of time had increased since the original publication. The total amount of time of 18 days and 6 hours was announced by National Grid ESO on twitter.
Due to plant availability and system requirements, our current coal run has come to an end at 9.20pm this evening. 18 days and 6 hours #coalfreeforttnight https://t.co/yi3SyvMuPf
— National Energy System Operator (@neso_energy) June 4, 2019
