The last coal power station in Britain will be forced to close in 2025, the government said as it laid out its plan to phase-out the polluting fossil fuel.
Ministers promised last year that the UK would close coal power within a decade and replace it with gas and other sources to meet its climate change commitments.
But in a delayed consultation on the phase-out, published on Wednesday, officials admitted that the last coal power station was likely to shutter in 2022 even without government intervention, prompting calls from campaigners to bring forward the cut-off year.
Greg Clark, the energy secretary, said the move sent a clear signal to the world that the UK was a good place to invest in clean energy. “Taking unabated coal power out of our energy mix and replacing it with cleaner technology, such as gas, will significantly reduce emissions from the UK’s energy use,” he said.
The government also confirmed renewable energy would receive £730m in support this parliament, and that bids for £290m of support annually would be opened from next April. Most of that is likely to be taken by offshore windfarm developers, which will receive at least £105 per megawatt hour of electricity generated if built in 2021, considerably lower than the £135 for ones deployed in 2018.
While admitting that recent history has shown coal power plants can close at short notice, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said its analysis suggested taking action on coal posed no risks to electricity supplies.
The department is consulting on two options for effectively forcing the UK’s last eight coal power stations to close by 2025 at the very latest. Both involve changes to the Emissions Power Standard, which sets a limit on new coal power plants’ annual carbon emissions based on their capacity, and which the UK’s ageing fleet would be unable to meet.
Officials expect that because air pollution and climate change measures are making coal uneconomic, the most likely scenario is that all coal power plants will close by 2022. But they also said that if the price of coal was low it was conceivable they would not close until 2030. They said this uncertainty showed the need for intervention.
Ben Caldecott, associate fellow of the thinktank Bright Blue, called for the end date to be brought forward. “There are significant benefits of phasing coal out sooner, rather than later. We believe that the 2025 target should be brought forward by at least two years to give investors greater certainty to invest, which will improve security of supply.”
Most green groups and climate change commentators welcomed the move and commended the government. WWF said ministers should strongly resist any attempts to water down the phase-out. Friends of the Earth applauded the government and said it should now block a proposed opencast coal mine in Northumberland, given the UK was no longer planning to burn the fuel.
Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief, said: “Congratulations to UK government for the consultation on coal phase-out. Coal needs to take its rightful place in history of yesterday. Coal workers need to be given a fresh chance at the jobs of tomorrow.”
The government acknowledges the potential human cost of coal power stations shuttering, saying plant closures could have a “significant impact on communities” as they employed around 100-500 people directly.
The only way the coal plants could stay open would be if they fitted technology to capture and store the carbon emissions, though officials said that was “considered unlikely”. The other option is that they convert to burning another fuel, such as biomass, a process which is complete at two of the six units at Drax, the UK’s biggest power station, and is nearly finished on a third.
“We recognise coal is a fuel of the past and using the latest technology we have already upgraded half the power station to run on sustainable biomass,” said a spokesman for Drax, which welcomed the consultation. “The majority of electricity we now produce is renewable, providing UK homes and businesses with low carbon, affordable and reliable power.”
Electricity generation from the UK’s coal plants has already declined steeply, and is expected to have fallen 66% by the year’s end, compared to 2015. There are no coal plants left in Scotland after the last one, at Longannet, closed in the spring. Gas has taken up most of the slack this year, and is expected to replace most of the capacity provided as coal plants close in coming years.
Michael Grubb, professor of International Energy and Climate Change Policy at UCL, said: “Outlining how and when coal plants will cease to operate will pave the way for new investment, including gas. Coal is already struggling economically and removing coal clarifies the market space for gas during the 2020s.”
ClientEarth, an environmental NGO that successfully won a legal case against the government on air pollution plans, cautioned that while a coal phase-out was welcome, the UK should focus on clean energy to replace it, rather than gas.
“The UK government must make sure it isn’t problem-shifting. Putting a sell-by date on coal is logical, but the UK must be bolder and the deadline should be sooner,” said Susan Shaw, a lawyer at the organisation.
Goat2054 on Mon, 14th Nov 2016 8:30 pm
Pigs may fly before we see coal phased out in the US. And that is a real shame.
Go Speed Racer on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 7:30 am
Now that Trump is President, we can build more coal powered electric plants. To make America great again.
Go Speed Racer on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 7:32 am
The brits probly ran out of coal.
And they don’t have sense enough,
to burn up all their garbage.
Go Speed Racer on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 7:35 am
And they could get electricity by burning tires, sofa’s, old mattresses, and that cheap Chinese particle board furniture.
rockman on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 10:08 am
Racer – According to those right-wingers at the Sierra Club here’s the status of recent coal powered electricity generation efforts:
Early stages of development: 3 projects
Advanced stages of development: 1 projects
In operation or under construction: 41 projects.
Surprised? Why…do you think those folks are going to put out big advertisements about expanding coal-fired capacity in the last 10 years? LOL.
Same question: do you think President Obama is going to advertise that during his second term US coal exports set a new record high according to his EIA? “U.S. 2012 coal exports are expected to break their previous record level of almost 113 million tons, set in 1981.” Or that 40% of all US coal production comes from the govt leases that his administration controls?
As been said many times before: they is often a huge disconnect between what a politician says and what he does.
penury on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 10:50 am
When the supply of nat gas becomes limited or too expensive, some government will discover that utilization of the moth balled coal plants will be a “greener” alternative than building “new” whatever power plants, Any program from a gov that is not expected to take place for over five years is a project which is not expected to ever occur.
Hubbert on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 12:55 pm
Never fails to amaze me just how stupid these liberals are.
Apneaman on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 1:08 pm
Hubbert, you know what once never failed to amaze me? How fucking retards like you spend every waking moment blaming everything you don’t like on the other fake american team even when it’s from another country. Somehow american liberals are responsible for this proposed british policy that is ten years away and is never going to happen. They could have 4 new governments in that time.
Apneaman on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 1:11 pm
The Heat Is On: October Holds The Record As US’ Hottest Month In Decades, Can It Get Any Warmer?
http://www.itechpost.com/articles/52468/20161111/heat-october-holds-record-hottest-month-decades-warmer.htm
Apneaman on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 1:13 pm
Forecast: Late-fall heat wave continues
Issued November 7, 2016 – Covering the period from November 9 to November 16, 2016
http://www.manitobacooperator.ca/weather/late-fall-heat-wave-continues/
Apneaman on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 1:40 pm
I lived in the great state of Georgia for 8 years and spent many months in the mountains (baby mountain) of N Carolina and there was no drought or wildfires in the fucking middle of November.
Record-Breaking Drought and Wildfires Plaque Southeast
http://www.ecowatch.com/wildfires-drought-southeast-2094301912.html
rockman on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 2:58 pm
p – “When the supply of nat gas becomes limited or too expensive…” We’ll have to wait to see where prices go. But as far as “limited” supply remember that not only is the US still a net NG importer (by just a little bit) but in the last few months we’ve seen a reversal of a 7 year trend of decreasing NG imports. The big reason we won’t be exporting a lot of LNG in the near future is that those international prices have fallen 50% to $70% from their peak some years ago.
“..some government will discover that utilization of the mothballed coal plants will be a “greener” alternative than building “new”. Maybe. But not too long ago to my big surprise I discovered that Texas coal burning plants are the most efficient of any state. IOW less CO2 for the Btu’s generated. And we burn a lot of crappy grade lignite.
But not because we are that nice. LOL. It’s actually because of our lignite. More specifically because it’s a relatively new source here and our plants are more recent/modern then the rest of the country as a whole.
So if England is eventually forced back to coal (especially lower quality) new plants might not be as bad as the retired ones. Especially if they locate then close to areas where not only CCS would be viable but also where the CO2 might be used for Enhanced Oil Recovery as being done in Texas.
Go Speed Racer on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 3:18 pm
Well Mr Rock Man, you got all the interesting
insights. Ya Obama said he shut down all coal
plants, and put all coal workers onto
food stamps. But it just ain’t so.
Same with Trump, said he would build a wall, but
not even in office yet and he already downrated
it to chicken wire from Home Depot. At least Mexico
can afford some chicken wire.
Come January, Trump will have forgotten the whole
thing, while his base starts getting rattled.
J-Gav on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 5:51 pm
Promises, promises.
Apneaman on Tue, 15th Nov 2016 7:36 pm
I tell ya, it no longer matters, so burn it all. The scientists and enviro people are just going through the motions at this point. Still need a pay cheque like everyone else. You do not need to be a scientist to connect the dots.
From Pole to Pole, Global Sea Ice Values are Plummeting
“In total, global sea ice coverage is now about 3,865,000 square kilometers below average.
If you think that number sounds really big, it’s because it is. It represents a region of lost ice nearly 40 percent the size of the land and water area of the entire United States including Alaska and Hawaii. To visualize it another way, imagine all of the land area of Alaska, California, Texas, Montana, Arizona and New Mexico combined and you begin to get the gist.
“Once sea ice is lost for a significant period, a kind of feedback loop comes into play where dark ocean surfaces trap more of the sun’s rays during polar summer than once-white ice coverage — which previously reflected radiation back toward space. This newly absorbed heat is then re-radiated back into the local atmosphere during polar fall and winter — creating an inertial barrier to ice reformation and ultimately generating a big jump in seasonal ocean and atmospheric surface temperatures.”
https://robertscribbler.com/2016/11/15/from-pole-to-pole-global-sea-ice-values-are-plummeting/
rockman on Wed, 16th Nov 2016 1:00 am
Racer – “…Obama said he shut down all coal
plants.” Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t. As you know you have to analyze his prervious words closely: did he say (A) we were going to have no coal burning plants or that he was (B) going to push to shut down EXISTING coal burning plants? Obviously with new plants being built (A) can’t be correct: who would spend $billions on new plants if closure of ALL coal burning plants was imminent? Of course a large number of new coal burners were cancelled. But that happened at the same time as NG prices went into the toilet. Perhaps the EIA can shed some light on that question:
“Natural gas-fired electricity generation in the United States is expected to reach a record level this year 4% higher than in 2015. Natural gas-fired generation is expected to continue to exceed coal generation ultimately providing 34% of the US electricity generated this year. Coal’s share of the 2016 U.S. electricity generating mix is expected to be 30%.”
Which may mean (B) may have more to do with NG replacing coal then President Obama’s interest in reducing US GHG emissions. Granted burning NG is better then burning coal. But it’s still burning a fossil fuel that generates GHG.