U.K. Calls Time on Coal-Fired Power

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Electricity from coal-fired power stations will come to an end within a decade in the U.K., according to new plans outlined by the government.

Announcing a new direction for U.K. energy, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd said that all unabated coal-fired plants must shut down by 2025, and will be restricted in their usage from 2023. The country aims to replace the lost capacity with a new "dash for gas" by building a new fleet of lower-emitting gas-fired power plants to support the growing base of renewable energy.

"We now have an electricity system where no form of power generation, not even gas-fired power stations, can be built without government intervention," Rudd said. "[As well as a ] legacy of ageing, often unreliable plant[s]. Perversely, even with the huge growth in renewables, our dependence on coal--the dirtiest fossil fuel--hasn't been reduced. Indeed, a higher proportion of our electricity came from coal in 2014 than in 1999. So, despite intervention, we still haven't found the right balance. One of the greatest and most cost-effective contributions we can make to emission reductions in electricity is by replacing coal-fired power stations with gas."

She added: "It cannot be satisfactory for an advanced economy like the U.K. to be relying on polluting, carbon-intensive, 50-year-old coal-fired power stations. I am pleased to announce that we will be launching a consultation in the spring on when to close all unabated coal-fired power stations. Our consultation will set out proposals to close coal by 2025, and restrict its use from 2023. If we take this step, we will be one of the first developed countries to deliver on a commitment to take coal off the system."

The move will see a dozen coal-fired plants taken out of action. Last year, coal supplied 29% of the U.K.'s power. Removing those plants will result in a loss of almost 19 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Three of the plants are already scheduled to close by the end of March next year, with a fourth due to partially close, with the loss of a combined 5.5 GW.

In the past year, numerous coal-fired plants have been forced to close for environmental and economic reasons. These include the Longannet, Ferrybridge and Eggborough plants. In the years between 2012 and 2016, about 16 GW of U.K. coal-fired power will have been decommissioned without being replaced by enough new gas-fired or nuclear projects to supply base-load electricity.

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