#GoodNews - At 3pm today, the last coal-fired power station in England was taken off the grid. Scotland became coal free in 2016, Wales in 2020 and Northern Ireland in 2023. The UK is now the first G7 country to ditch coal completely. Now, it’s somewhat symbolic as coal formed around 1% of the energy mix for electricity generation over the past few years. But coal’s removal from the board does now mean the focus falls squarely on the next fossil fuel that we burn, namely methane or natural gas as most people call it.

Burning gas to generate electricity is also in decline. To date (2024) it accounts for 25% of electricity production in England and 5-6% in Scotland. This decline in use is possibly as much through cost pressure due to the war in Ukraine as it is through a desire to speed up decarbonisation of the electricity grid.

The northeast of England was so synonymous with coal mining that we even have the saying, "Carrying coals to Newcastle" to mean a pointless exercise as they already have so much coal there. Former pit towns are spread across northeast England and parts of Scotland (Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Fife, Lothian and Stirlingshire). In past centuries these areas fuelled the homes of the country, its railways, steelworks and eventually electric grid. As a child I remember the coal being delivered to our bunker and carefully piling up lumps of coal on the fire. Clean Air Acts and smokeless zones heralded the demise of coal and now we have reached the point where coal has next to no role in our economy.

I'm struck too by the fact that Scotland and northeast England once again generate much of the electricity that fuels GB and does so in the cleanest manner possible, by a long stretch. Charts on the visuals page show that Scotland leads on the number of days of zero emission electricity generation, but it's the North East England grid region that has the most days on or below the 2024 target of 35 gCO₂/kWh. Quite a turn around for a region that was so synonymous with coal that it's leading city entered the global lexicon of English language phrases. For many people in mining communities, this energy transition has been a long, painful, deeply political struggle that escalated 40 years ago.

There's still potential to include some of the former infrastructure of the coal industry into the energy economy. Decommissioned power stations have grid connections in place and can become battery energy storage systems (BESS). This is happening at numerous sites in England. Meanwhile, water in unused mine shafts is being tapped for district heating systems in Lothian and other places.