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The UK has shut down its only remaining coal-fired power station, bringing to an end a 142-year dependence on the fossil fuel by the country that invented it as an industrial power source.
The country’s last remaining coal power station, located in Nottinghamshire’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar, ceased operations at midnight on Monday, signalling a new chapter for the UK energy mix.
The decision to close the Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant makes the UK the first G7 nation to end its use of coal, and marks the conclusion of a swift divestment from the fossil fuel by the UK, where coal power was invented in 1882.
In the 1980s coal, which is the dirtiest and least efficient of the major fossil fuels, accounted for roughly 80 per cent of the UK’s power needs. And as recently as 2014, it remained the country’s leading source of electricity.
Lord Deben – the UK’s longest serving environment secretary – hailed the milestone as a “remarkable day” for Britain which at one stage had “built her whole strength on coal”.
Meanwhile the current energy minister Michael Shanks said: “Today’s closure at Ratcliffe marks the end of an era and coal workers can be rightly proud of their work powering our country for over 140 years. We owe generations a debt of gratitude as a country.”
The Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant powered 2m homes before it was decommissioned and had been earmarked for closure in late 2022. But in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the plant’s owners, the German energy company Uniper, sought the permission of the government to reverse its decision in order to help ease energy shortages.
Plant manager Peter O’Grady said the closure of the plant, which finished its final shift at midnight, was “an emotional day”.
“When I started my career 36 years ago, none of us imaged a future without coal generation in our lifetimes,” he added.
The station’s 170 remaining staff were invited to the site’s canteen, where Uniper would broadcast a livestream of the plant’s generating units being turned off for the final time.
Many of the staff who will be assembled will stay on at the plant to help administer a two-year decommissioning process.
