Coal news and updates

 

The United Kingdom will not challenge the European Union’s environmental rules which have led to closure of many old coal power plants, even as the country faces threats of power blackouts within the next two years, The Times of London reported on Monday.

 

“We are not planning to break the rules on that,” Britain’s Energy Minister Michael Fallon was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

 

Britain’s coal-fired generators, once the backbone of British energy industry, pumped out 91.86 terrawatt-hours (TWh) of power in the first nine months of this year, down 3 per cent from the year before, according to provisional data published by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.

 

“We see coal shrinking very rapidly from now on, probably contributing nothing by 2030. Coal is going to disappear off the system,” Fallon told the British paper.

 

National Grid has already warned of winter blackouts if investments are not made in new capacities even while Britain’s power market is tightening over its ageing power-generation capacity.

 

Coal, which when burned produces about twice the greenhouse gases as natural gas, is not in retreat. In 2011, coal was used to generate 30.3 per cent of the world's primary energy, the highest level since 1969, according to the World Coal Association, an industry trade group. That share slipped only to 29.9 per cent last year.

 

Earlier this month, Britain's energy minister, Michael Fallon, told parliament that government calculations showed that the early closure of old coal plants would lead household bills to increase by around 4 per cent and industrial bills by 4 to 6 per cent.

 

Britain's power demand is usually slightly below 40 gigawatts (GW) a day, although needs can rise to almost 60 GW or fall to 20 GW during times of lowest demand, National Grid data shows.

 

Britain's installed thermal (coal, natural gas and oil), nuclear and hydro power capacity is currently slightly over 70 GW, although output is usually around 40 to 60 GW as some facilities are in maintenance or mothballed.

 

Adding 4.6 GW in capacity via interconnectors with continental Europe as well as the country's more than 10 GW in renewable capacity (mostly wind), the system is well set up to meet Britain's demand for electricity.

 

But the problem lies towards the end of the decade, as the country's ageing nuclear fleet is retired before new reactors have been built.

 

From 2017, Britain could face power shortages during days when high demand clashes with low renewable output, data shows.

 

Source: Reuters