Farewell to Old King Coal after 142 years of fossil fuel

At midnight last Monday it was the end of an era as the UK’s last coal power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, stopped producing any electricity from burning coal – ending the country’s 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel.

“It was a very welcome and major milestone in Britain’s ambitions to reduce its contribution to climate change,” said Midlands green energy expert Ron Fox. “Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel producing the most greenhouse gases when burnt.”

The UK was the birthplace of coal power which powered the industrial revolution, but last week it became the first major economy to give it up.

“It’s a remarkable story of how our country has moved from coal, the principal culprit of global warming, to using green energy such as wind and solar power,” said Ron, of Noreus Ltd on the University of Keele Science and Innovation Park.

The first coal-fired power station in the world, the Holborn Viaduct power station, was built in 1882 in London by the inventor Thomas Edison who brought electric lights to the streets of the capital.

From then until towards the end of the 20th century, coal provided most of the UK’s electricity, powering homes and businesses.

In the early 1990s, coal began to be overtaken by gas in generating electricity. But even by 2012 coal still generated 39 per cent of the UK’s power.

But in 2008, the UK established its first legally binding climate targets and in 2015 the UK said it would end its use of coal power within the next decade.

To show the dramatic switch to green energy, Ron said in 2010, renewables generated just 7 per cent of the UK’s power. By the first half of 2024, that had grown to more than 50 per cent – a new record.

This meant that coal could even be switched off completely for short periods, with the first coal-free days in 2017.

And there was also a huge shift in the number of jobs in the coal industry. In 1920 almost 1.2 million people in Britain were employed in the collieries. In March this year there were just 242 people working in underground mines in the UK.

But Ron said there were still many challenges ahead in the goal to reach 100 per cent clean energy by 2030. Although coal is a very polluting source of energy, its biggest benefit is that it has been available at all times – unlike wind and solar which are limited by weather conditions.

Also, there is still work to be done to ensure the lights are kept on in a safe, sustainable and cheaper way with battery technology becoming even more important.

But it may not be the end for the country’s last coal power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, which has been running since 1967 and where the eight remaining cooling towers are due for demolition by 2030.

Playwright James Graham, writer of the BBC drama Sherwood about the struggle of Nottinghamshire communities to adapt after the demise of coal mining, is calling for one of the towers to be kept to preserve an important chapter in our industrial heritage.

For more details about green energy call Ron on 0845 474 6641 or go to www.noreus.co.uk

Caption: End of an era – the country’s last coal power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, has now closed.
Picture: Wikipedia