LONDON: Britain was the birth of fuel energy, the first country to develop a coal-fired power station. It is now the second major business to abandon it.
After serving the UK since 1967, the next fuel plant still operating in Nottinghamshire’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar, shut down on Monday at midnight to begin operations.
The UK’s transition from coal to light will no longer be a source of energy because of its 142-year dependence on the fossil fuel.
The first common coal-fired power station in the world opened at London’s Holborn Viaduct in 1882, built by Thomas Edison’s Edison Electric Light Company.
” This will be the first moment since 1882 that coal has not driven Great Britain”, said Michael Lewis, CEO of Düsseldorf-based global energy company Uniper, which owns Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe has long been a pillar of the UK’s energy safety, and its regional cooling buildings are renowned for their classic structures. Ratcliffe powered more than two million ( 20 lakh ) homes and businesses, which is equivalent to the entire East Midlands region, during a period when coal was the backbone of industrial progress. It significantly contributed to the expansion of the economy and the support of hundreds of people’s lives.
” As we close this chapter, we honour Ratcliffe’s legacy and the people working here, while embracing the future of cleaner and flexible strength. Uniper aims to invest in systems like CCS ( carbon, capture and storage ), renewables, and hydrogen. According to Lewis, the goal is to transform our last-ever power sources and provide our customers with low-carbon fuel and reliable energy.
Ratcliffe’s clock to closing began in 2015, when UK govt announced plans to finish UK fuel electricity generation. The government has set a 2020 end time for October 2024.
A regional development attempt has been passed that authorizes the conversion of the electricity station page into a low-carbon energy production and advanced manufacturing facility.
Coal powered the technological rebellion, which began in Great Britain in the middle of the 18th century. The British East India Company established Raniganj Coalfield, West Bengal, in 1774, the second fuel plant in India. The UK has now become the second big business to stop using coal as fuel and lead the world in a global transition away from fossil fuels and decarbonizing power systems.
Coal, considered to be the dirtiest fossil fuel and the world’s largest source of carbon pollution, accounted for only 1.8 % of the UK’s energy mix in 2020, compared with 40 % almost century ago.
” It is an emotional time for me and the team”, Peter O’Grady, plant manager, said.
No one among us who had a job 36 years ago when I began to think about how coal could be produced in our life. I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished over the years and to be a part of this step in terms of energy as the nation pursues a cleaner upcoming,” O’Grady said.
In January, all four of Ratcliffe’s 500MW products ran together for the last moment. The last 1, 650 tonnes package from the harbor of Immingham in Lincolnshire to the site arrived in June with the last train supply of fuel. The percentage of the UK’s energy from renewables has grown significantly over the last 10 years — from 10.7 % in 2014 to 39.5 % in 2023.
Michael Shanks, UK’s minister for energy, said,” The age of fuel might be ending, but a new era of great power work for our country is really beginning”.
