At midnight on Wednesday, Britain will pass a significant landmark, marking 2 months without burning coal to generate electricity.
A decade ago 40% of the countries electricity came from coal, with just 3% being generated from wind and solar. Britain’s energy system has transformed over the last decade. Renewable energy is now responsible for 37% of electricity supplied, whilst 35% for fossil fuels. Thanks to a large investment in renewable energy, coal no longer needs to be the backbone of our energy system. Now the UK has the biggest offshore wind industry in the world.
Coronavirus is only part of the transition, but the countries lockdown caused electricity demand to plummet and the National Grid took power plants off the network – no coal has been burnt for electricity since midnight 9th April.
For more information on the UK’s energy transition, visit here for visit the @bbcnews article which has informed this post.