Coal news and updates

Countdown to 2025: Tracking the UK coal phase out

The UK plans to phase out unabated coal-fired power stations by 2025, as long as security of electricity supplies is maintained.

The proposal, launched to great fanfare in the run up to the Paris climate summit, remains subject to consultation this spring. However, events could take the decision out of ministers’ hands.

The UK’s coal use fell by a fifth during 2014, to historic lows not seen since the birth of the  industrial revolution. Initial figures suggest coal use has continued to fall through 2015.

The economics for coal have deteriorated significantly. Falling gas prices and higher carbon taxes have combined to leave coal generators facing increasing losses. Coal supplied just 17% of UK electricity in the third quarter of 2015, down from 21% a year earlier and 34% in Q3 of 2013.

Five large coal plants have so far announced plans to close during 2016 (see map and tables). The latest, Fiddlers Ferry and Rugeley, announced their intentions earlier this month. Carbon Brief will update this article as the situation develops.

Nearly 8 gigawatts (GW) of capacity is set to close by the summer, out of 19GW in operation today. Together, the closing plants emitted 32m tonnes of CO2 in 2014, around 6% of total UK CO2 emissions. As well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the closures will reduce air pollution.

It’s worth noting that 8.4GW of coal capacity has already closed since 2010. Coal is usually thought of as baseload generation that operates constantly day and night, but in recent months coal plants have been operating less than half of the time.

The plants planning to close this year are 46 years old on average, slightly older than the rest of the UK’s coal fleet. However, all but two of the remaining stations are more than 40 years old.

The cost of maintaining ageing equipment was cited by SSE in explaining its decision to close Fiddlers Ferry. From this year, plants face tightening air pollution rules under the EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), though various exemptions and transitional arrangements are in play.

Source: Carbon brief