Coal news and updates

The UK generated more electricity from wind than from coal in the full calendar year of 2016, Carbon Brief analysis shows.

 

The milestone is a first for the UK and reflects a collapse in coal generation, which contributed less than 10% of UK electricity last year. The decline saw coal output fall to its lowest level since 1935.

 

It also means CO2 emissions from UK power generation will have fallen by around 20% in 2016, as coal was largely replaced by lower-emissions gas. This reduction will be enough to cut overall UK CO2 emissions by 6% for the year, if other sectors’ emissions are unchanged.

 

Carbon Brief’s estimates of UK electricity generation and emissions in 2016 are based on a range of sources and our own analysis. (See below for details.) The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will publish its own estimates on 30 March.

 

Wind beats coal

The past 12 months have seen a year of firsts for the UK’s electricity system. At the broadest level, the UK grid is changing as centralised power stations are joined by thousands of smaller sites, particularly renewables, as part of efforts to decarbonise electricity supplies.

 

Other important factors include falling electricity demand, rising imports from continental Europe and changes in the relative price of coal and gas on wholesale energy markets. The UK’s top-up carbon tax, the carbon price floor, also doubled in April 2015.

 

In March 2016, as Carbon Brief analysis revealed, coal generation fell to zero for the first time since public electricity supply started in 1882. Wind generated more electricity than coal in April 2016, the first month this had ever happened.

 

Then Carbon Brief analysis showed solar also generated more electricity than coal in April, again the first month this had ever happened. Solar went on to generate more power than coal during the half year from April to September 2016.

 

Now, Carbon Brief analysis of the full twelve months of 2016 shows that wind generated more electricity than coal, as the chart below shows. This first was possible largely because of falling coal generation, which was down 59% on a year earlier.

Source:carbonbrief