Britain has been coal free for two months...

[Pluckedpencil]

Link. To article www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52973089
For two months the national grid have closed down the remaining three coal fuelled power plants, so the majority of energy is now renewable.
I was so emotional when I read this. Conflicted as well, because I am from a mining family and as a child I remember the vitriol towards Thatcher when the mining industry was ripped apart. I still think vast areas of the country were let down, but this result, in little more than a decade, is a ray of hope at the end of it all.
What do other people think/feel reading this? I will also add I am no expert on either the politics or science of this, just my view as someone with little knowledge of the subject.

The figures show wind and water is tiny - the bulk of electric generation is gas, followed by biomass & nuclear. Gas is a fossil fuel. Biomass has a huge carbon footprint.

Not using coal has only been achieved by industry/shops/offices being closed due to covid.

Obviously a step in the right direction not to use coal, but we're still using mostly fossil fuels so not real a time to celebrate whilst renewables are still a tiny percentage.

I'm obviously happy about the coal thing but I'm afraid I think it's naive to think "the majority of energy is renewable now". What about the tons and tons of money the government are still dedicating to gas and oil?

The problem continues - although of course the no coal is a welcome small step in the right direction

I think the step towards renewables is a positive one, I think I read we have the world's offshore largest wind farm. Not long ago that would have sounded very unlikely. A long way to go but happy to celebrate the positives

Coal use has disappeared because of policy. It is not due to Covid.

I was so emotional when I read this. Conflicted as well, because I am from a mining family and as a child I remember the vitriol towards Thatcher when the mining industry was ripped apart. I still think vast areas of the country were let down

This I don't understand. You celebrate the cessation of coal fired power and yet you attack Thatcher for closing the mines ( altho previous Labour governments shutdown more coal production than The Conservatives ever did ). That is not a logical or cohesive position, that's just an expression of political prejudice. Globally that's a nonsense too as coal production for power generation is increasing. 80 countries now use coal , up from 66 in 2000. We can pat ourselves on the back for closing coal production , knocking down power stations and scrapping the rail infrastructure that supports it but the UK alone is a fraction of greenhouse emissions. If we will ever be able to generate 100% from renewable sources is debatable and nuclear power is dangerously toxic, watch Chernobyl or Google Fukashima. I don't have the answer but carbon capture always looked worth pursuing in my opinion. I guess nuclear fusion is the solution , that or Dilithium crystals.

It means little because it coincides with an unusually prolonged hot spell with quite long daylight so home energy use will have been below average, plus reduced industrial, commercial and leisure use due to corona shutdowns, so demand will have been much smaller than usual.

There are many many coal fired power stations still operating in India, China, the US and other countries, so what we do is neither here nor there on a global scale.

www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-worlds-coal-power-plants

Not the whole of Britain, here in NI we still have it, and rightly so, my heating system runs solely off my coal fire, there's no gas avaliable in my area, so unless someone wants to come along and give me 5k for a new heating system then coal it is.

Well that's OK because NI isn't in Britain .

Sorry Barbara, not the whole of the British Isles then

UK power stations are still burning an awful lot of wood imported from US forests, plus there's nuclear energy, so we are still far from being on the road to greener energy.

I'm glad someone else has spotted the appalling greenwash. Biomass = wood. Imported processed wood at that.

nuclear is zero carbon apart from manufacture and operations. That also applies to windfarms (need diesel backup) and solar (horrendously polluting manufacture). There was a terrible design flaw in the Chernobyl reactor. Fukishima is on an earthquake fault. Yes, nuclear produces spent fuel which needs to be stored, but if you want low carbon...

and yes, loads of gas generation - look at the gridwatch.

use less, buy less, travel less, have less. Not nice, is it?

the amount of electricity generated from biomass is rather small. At the moment it is 3GW, the most it can do.

Using local waste material seems reasonable.
I don't see the point of shipping it round the world though.

Windpower is only 1.65GW today because it is calm, solar is probably about 2.3GW because it is mostly overcast; oil and coal are both zero; combined cycle gas is 17.7GW. Nukes are 4.2GW.

Last week Wind hit 10GW on Friday and Saturday, which is about its current max. Solar is not measured accurately, but hit peaks of 6GW to 8GW over the last sunny month.

Coal stations are now I think all closed down. There was some coal generation in March and April as remaining stocks at the stations were burned because it was cheaper than loading them onto trucks and driving them away for use or landfill.

The new wind farms can generate electricity, without subsidy, cheaper than nukes, coal, or gas. But as the wind doesn't blow every day, we need spare capacity as well.

gridwatch.co.uk/

is a nice tool for nerds. we're pulling 5% from France right now.

not nerds, science and understanding. Look at gridwatch on a still winters day and see how seriously near totally screwed we are. And how useless windfarms are in a UK winter.

I know this is MN and the party line is that science is unfeminine, but please don't follow that.

I'm glad fiddlers Ferry has closed...
The imported biomass frustrates me..

@mencken

not nerds, science and understanding. Look at gridwatch on a still winters day and see how seriously near totally screwed we are. And how useless windfarms are in a UK winter.

I know this is MN and the party line is that science is unfeminine, but please don't follow that.

I have never once ever even thought science is unfeminine - I'm not taking that lying down. As a nerd.

Apart from that, top post !

No coal is not the amazing green solution it’s made out to be. As others have said, the alternatives can have equal or higher emissions, or are not reliable. Wind is no use when there’s none but equally when there is too much.

We are working towards being coal free in the not-so-distant future (think it was 2025?) and while this is an exceptional circumstance of warm (but not hot enough fir A/C) weather and a significant shut down of industry and commerce, it is becoming increasingly common to have phases where coal generation is held off.

There's a large powerstation relatively near to me that frequently doesn't have steam billowing out of the cooling towers anymore.

You are being very hypocritical, OP

Pellets are renewable and eco in a situation like mine where we live surrounded by working forests and have a pellet stove. Not so much if you are carting pellets halfway across the world.

No coal is not the amazing green solution it’s made out to be.

Has anyone every claimed that ?

I was fascinated to learn - only this year - that no new coal will be made in future as bacteria have evolved to break down lignin that weren't around when the current reserves of coal were laid down.