End of an era: coal power ends in UK today

[DenzilPenberthy]

Today is the final day of operation for the UK's last remaining coal power station.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/30/end-of-an-era-as-britains-last-coal-fired-power-plant-shuts-down

UK's transition to lower carbon electricity has been amazing to see. I would never have believed we'd get here by now.

They're planning for our first few entirely gas-free days next year. Currently gas never seems to go below 2 or 3 GW even on good sunny and windy days. Presumably it's too much of a squeaky-bum event moving to so little synchronous generation without some very careful planning!

[Gyro]

It's a shame we still have Drax burning wood chips from suspect sources, but it's a step.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59546281

[TimFox]

What will replace "Bringing coals to Newcastle" as a cliché?

[themadhippy]

What will replace "Bringing coals " as a cliché?

importing coal to newcastle

[Marco]

suspect sources

I wonder how many planks they have to get out of a tree before they can call the rest of the tree wood residue ... 1?

[Gyro]

suspect sources

I wonder how many planks they have to get out of a tree before they can call the rest of the tree wood residue ... 1?

According to a BBC documentary I saw, any number down to zero... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68381160

[djsb]

Lets hope there is enough power left over to power up the new electric arc furnace planned for Tata steel in Port Talbot. Maybe in time this will begin to compensate in a small way for all the jobs lost over many years in both coal mining, steel production and ship building in the UK. Please delete this post if it has delved too far into politics.






PS, It's not just steel. We could be recycling aluminium as well. The EBike manufacturer Riese and Muller has to get their recycled aluminium from Portugal which a seemingly poorer country than the UK. We could be doing this in the UK.

[TimFox]

https://xkcd.com/2992
gives an interesting numerical calculation of this era

[vk6zgo]

It's a shame we still have Drax burning wood chips from suspect sources, but it's a step.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59546281

So Sir Hugo Drax has given up on bringing Britain to its knees by the use of a nuclear armed Rocket ("Moonraker") & now puts his hopes on wood smoke?
Better wise up 007!

[vk6zgo]

Lets hope there is enough power left over to power up the new electric arc furnace planned for Tata steel in Port Talbot. Maybe in time this will begin to compensate in a small way for all the jobs lost over many years in both coal mining, steel production and ship building in the UK. Please delete this post if it has delved too far into politics.






PS, It's not just steel. We could be recycling aluminium as well. The EBike manufacturer Riese and Muller has to get their recycled aluminium from Portugal which a seemingly poorer country than the UK. We could be doing this in the UK.

Both steel production & shipbuilding in the UK were well on the decline, decades before climate change became a concern.
The problem was that "the lesser breeds without the law" wanted to produce their own steel & build their own ships.

In Australia, most industrial structures of the early part of the 20th Century used British steel, then we started using our own locally made steel---& even made ships to transport iron ore & all sorts of other cargoes.

Now, sadly, even though large parts of this country are pretty much made of iron ore, we barely make steel in any serious way any more, & our shipbuilding industry is a "niche" one.

These days, the large structures will use Chinese or Korean steel, made from Australian iron ore.

[Bryn]

And yet to think that over a year ago, the UK was to have its first deep coal mine... how times have changed, eh?

Also, we're the first country in the world to end it... let's hope others follow suit for a greener future.

[Siwastaja]

Also, we're the first country in the world to end it... let's hope others follow suit for a greener future.

Finland was also the first country in the world many years ago... I think this is the usual branding thing where every country thinks they are the first. It only depends on the definition of "first" which can be adjusted to suit the needs.

[fourtytwo42]

Another stupid move IMOP, last winter that power station kept the lights on frequently when the wind didn't blow and the weather has not changed since.

Apparently the fanatics have also ensured we have amongst the most expensive electricity apparently of industrialized nations and a good proportion of my increasingly excessive standing charge goes in to subsidizing wind turbines to be turned off on windy days.

So well done fanatics, what have you achieved on a world scale..........NOTHING!

Just selfish stupid grandstanding

[themadhippy]

https://xkcd.com/2992
gives an interesting numerical calculation of this era

not quite,we only dug up 2 1/2 inches,we imported the rest even though we had plenty of the stuff buried

Apparently the fanatics have also ensured we have amongst the most expensive electricity apparently of industrialized nations

And nothing to do with a  certain pm declaring war on the miners union and decimating not only an industry but many communities along with flogging of the nations energy companys to her mates to  make the books look good.

[Marco]

Apparently the fanatics have also ensured we have amongst the most expensive electricity apparently of industrialized nations and a good proportion of my increasingly excessive standing charge goes in to subsidizing wind turbines to be turned off on windy days.

UK is already going to get screwed on EU carbon border taxes as is, they don't have much choice. They need to get rid of coal and they can increase natural gas generation and renewables relatively quickly, can't just knock out a couple nuclear power plants.

[Bryn]

Finland was also the first country in the world many years ago...

When did they do it? And how was that different to what Britain has just done?

So well done fanatics, what have you achieved on a world scale..........NOTHING!

I disagree with that statement... we need to address the whole issue of climate change very seriously, even if it involves unpopular decisions made by elected politicians. Also, coal is a major polluter and I'm sure you know that yourself.

And nothing to do with a  certain pm declaring war on the miners union and decimating not only an industry but many communities along with flogging of the nations energy companys to her mates to  make the books look good.

I know who you're referring to... but just so you know, it was Harold Wilson that began the trend of shutting down coal mines first. As for you-know-who, she continued this only with the early warning about climate change, long before every other world leader said the same thing decades later.

[woofy]

I first heard John sing this many years ago, it seems apt now:
https://youtu.be/jfTfFJFx3ac?si=-Bbn6hIDqeN_G0gd

R.I.P old king coal, you did us proud.

[Siwastaja]

Finland was also the first country in the world many years ago...

When did they do it? And how was that different to what Britain has just done?

The point is, we never did and I don't think it's any different to Britain, I'm 100% certain some coal use will continue there as well. We all agree using coal sucks and in many countries (such as UK or Finland) the amount of use is already down to amounts that are insignificant*. Rest is greenwash, marketing, branding. While in reality low amount use vs. no use at all have no environmental difference, "we use only a bit" does not sound as sexy as "we got completely rid of it", hence the latter rules in public speech. Yet, because it makes perfect sense to keep using coal to limited amount, that use will continue behind the speeches.

*) e.g., I think amount of coal power used for Finnish grid annually is less than 1% of total production, and Finnish grid is one of the cleanest in terms of CO2, despite still using coal, so this kind of no coal / coal labeling is misleading and environmentally harmful. Or as fortytwo42 says, fanaticism. While, say, 30% would be really bad, 1% might be environmentally better than forcing it to 0% and compensating by some other means.

[tatel]

Apparently the fanatics have also ensured we have amongst the most expensive electricity apparently of industrialized nations and a good proportion of my increasingly excessive standing charge goes in to subsidizing wind turbines to be turned off on windy days.

So well done fanatics, what have you achieved on a world scale..........NOTHING!

Well, I don't know how much is the electricity bill in the UK, but I just looked at my last bill and turns out I paid 0.099722 €/kWh

If you pay less than that, congratulations. If not, just let me say that most if not all of electricity here is generated from renewables. It comes from wind turbines, PV and hydro. Sometimes combined cycle gas stations have to get into the pool, then the kWh goes through the roof.

That would include electric furnaces. Iberian Peninsula, where Portugal is, has a different set of electricity market rules than UE. If electricity in Portugal is cheaper, then melting there, better than in the UK, does probably make a lot of sense.

So I can't help but know it can be done (at least here), and I feel happy it does make my electricity bill cheaper. Perhaps you should blame your politicians instead.

[Siwastaja]

Well, I don't know how much is the electricity bill in the UK, but I just looked at my last bill and turns out I paid 0.099722 €/kWh

UK is one of those countries with significantly expensive electricity especially compared to extremely low natural gas price. This causes painful compromises e.g. resistance against sane technologies like heatpumps or electric mobility, since fossil fuels are so much cheaper per energy that they end up similar cost even if alternatives are 4x more efficient (use one quarter of energy).

Most countries do not have such large imbalance in cost of fossil fuel vs. electricity so it surprises people like you. E.g. here direct electric heating has always been considered just normal and not much more expensive than e.g. burning oil which is the fossil alternative, because electric energy has been always relatively cheap.

[themadhippy]

0.099722 €/kWh

around 24p /0.30€ here in the good ole uk

[coppice]

My current energy prices in the UK are:

Electricity: 23.19p per kWh + 70.05p per day standing charge

Gas: 6.22p per kWh + 29.68p per day standing charge

So, electricity is currently about 4 times as much as gas. Before energy prices started going crazy (i.e. 2019) the ratio was about 5:1, and they were both far lower.

[TimFox]

Residential service in Chicago (today's bill) for comparison
"Supply"  $0.06889 per kwh
"Delivery"  $0.05103 per kwh
"Other and regulatory"  $0.0203 per kwh
Total per kwh:  $0.14 = 0.126 euro per kwh
Fixed charges (including taxes, "customer", and metering)  $24.13 = 21.72 euro per month

[themadhippy]

+ 70.05p per day standing charge

jeez i thought 57.86p per day was a rip off

[coppice]

+ 70.05p per day standing charge

jeez i thought 57.86p per day was a rip off

Why do you consider it a rip off? There are huge costs in operating a stable grid, irrespective of how much energy you actually use. I think there is a rip off angle in a charge for fixed costs, and its this. Our residential cabling will not cope with all domestic energy coming from the grid. We see a noticeable voltage drop just from peak demands with the current modest loads on the cabling we have at, say, Christmas lunch time. A massive amount of last mile rework will be needed, but I see zero happening.