UK’s last coal plant is shut down for good
Look to Europe for a taste of the U.S.’ future — give or take a few years.
Today, the United Kingdom’s last coal plant goes offline. The birthplace of coal-fired electricity has rapidly become the first of the G7 nations to forsake it in the name of meeting its net-zero targets. In 2008, the UK passed the “Climate Change Act,” which required greenhouse gas emissions to be cut to 60% below 1990 levels by 2050. That target was pushed up to be net-zero by 2050 in 2019. The UK ambitiously plans for electricity generation to be decarbonized by 2030.
The UK implemented an emissions control law on coal power plants in 2013, which required coal plants to cut emissions by about half. That proved unattainable. “The combination of air pollution rules, the cost of [carbon capture and sequestration], and carbon pricing made ongoing coal generation uncompetitive.” The U.S. is following the same playbook with its EPA rule that would require coal plants to capture 90 percent of emissions by 2032 to continue operating past 2039.
These policies cost British consumers:
In 2020, even before the recent surge in energy costs, everyday Britons were paying about 75 percent more for electricity than Americans, the result of a double whammy—cap-and-trade policies on the one hand and renewable subsidies on the other. And then came the Ukraine shock. During the 2022 energy crisis, electricity rates for British businesses were more than double the average paid by U.S. businesses.
The BBC reports the emotions of the workers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar:
Chris Smith has worked at the plant for 28 years in the environment and chemistry team. She said: “It is a very momentous day. The plant has always been running and we’ve always been doing our best to keep it operating….It is a very sad moment.”
Another BBC article highlighted the work of Harry Atkinson, a 25-year-old control instrumentation engineer at the plant:
“I started here as an apprentice. I completed my four-year apprenticeship and then worked up the ranks to be an engineer.
“The people here are amazing. Coming to work you feel like you’re doing something useful and you’re keeping people’s lights on.
“We’re doing something meaningful – you feel like what you’re doing is important.”
He said the decommissioning had come around faster than expected.
“It’s come around so quickly,” he said.
“Working here for seven years, there’s mixed emotions. It’s a lovely place to work and I’m glad I’ve worked here.”
The coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, has been running since 1967. It will be decommissioned over the next two years and demolished. It’s a sad moment indeed when the reliable electricity that powered the Industrial Revolution is pushed out of its birthplace.