Low-carbon UK: Britain just went more than two days without coal – a new record

The UK has just gone a record amount of time without using coal to generate electricity.

National Grid confirmed Britain operated without coal for more than two days, or just under 55 hours, between 10.25pm on Monday to 5.20am this morning.

The previous record was a stretch of 40.5 hours between the 28 and 30 October 2017.

Great Britain has just gone 48+ hours without any coal generation.— National Grid Control Room (@NGControlRoom) April 18, 2018

On Wednesday #gas produced 31.6% of British electricity followed by wind 25.1%, nuclear 20.2%, solar 7.6%, imports 7.4%, biomass 5.2%, hydro 1.4%, storage 1.2%, other 0.4%, coal 0.0%, national demand 779 GWh— National Grid Control Room (@NGControlRoom) April 19, 2018

The UK has made strides towards a low-carbon economy over the past few years, including the continued work to phase out its last remaining coal-fired power plants by 2025.

Fintan Slye, National Grid’s director of UK system operations, said:

The UK benefits from highly diverse and flexible sources of electricity and our energy mix continues to change. National Grid adapts system operation to embrace these changes.

However, it’s important to remember coal is still an important source of energy as we transition to a low carbon system.

Government figures out last month revealed the UK’s carbon emissions dropped by three per cent last year as coal-fired power generation plummeted.

Coal use for electricity fell 28 per cent between 2016 and 2017 to a record low as two more coal-fired plants were shut down over the year.

This time last year, Britain spent 24 hours without using coal as part of its energy mix for the first time since the Industrial Revolution.

The UK has set a target of cutting emissions to 80 per cent below 1990’s level by 2050.

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