First coal-free day since Industrial Revolution

Pacifico

Bit of a milestone yesterday, the first coal-free day for producing power since 1882. When you think how important coal mining was to the economy throughout the 60's and 70's and now it is set to be phased out completely by 2025. Things have moved quickly in the last few years with the push for a low carbon economy - much faster that I would have expected.

The end of an era - quite sad really.

                                                                        A combination of low demand for electricity and an abundance of wind meant the grid completed 24 hours relying on just gas, nuclear and renewables.

Engineers at the company said Friday marked a “historic” milestone in Britain’s shift away from carbon fuels, and that coal-free days would become increasingly common.

The “watershed” moment marks the first day Britain’s electricity system has survived without coal since the world’s first centralised public coal-fired generator opened at Holborn Viaduct in London in 1882.

“The Industrial Revolution started with coal and it’s been the absolute backbone of our power for most of the time since,” said Duncan Burt, head of real-time operations at the National Grid.

“It’s a very proud moment for us to be there on the first day when we weren’t burning coal.”

Greenpeace UK welcomed yesterday’s expected milestone.

The campaign group’s head of energy, Hannah Martin, said: “A decade ago, a day without coal would have been unimaginable, and in 10 years’ time our energy system will have been radically transformed again.”                                Click to expand...       

Britain goes without coal for the first time 'since Industrial Revolution'

tapzilla2k

It's a good thing ultimately in terms of technological progress, power generation still runs on the same basic Victorian principles generate steam to drive a turbine attached to a generator. Coal will still have niche uses in the UK, but it's days as being the backbone of power generation are over.
It's going to be a mix of renewable energy (solar, wind, tidal), gas and nuclear.

The countries that transition to low carbon economies will likely be better placed to thrive as the climate changes.

Cliff

A good day for sure but there are a few things to bear in mind.
The breakdown on Friday afternoon was 47% supplied by gas plants.
Nuclear 18% Wind 18% Solar 10%.
6% was supplied by the Drax coal station which has partly been converted to biomass burning wood pellets and some was imported.

Our nuclear plants are coming to the end of their life- certainly before new ones are built.
But, and this is the biggest problem, there has to be a back up of reliable electricity, i.e. gas/nuclear if there is no wind and solar when it is cloudy or night time (no way around that one). Electricity that can be generated at the turn of a switch is expensive.
(Gas turbines are typically 30% efficient- newer ones can be higher)

So yes, the trend it good, but there are caveats.

The Dude

Drax is 70% biomass these days I think, plus they have their own huge windfarm. A tremendous achievement really considering the place was built to burn coal.

You can smell (or not smell) the difference, the sooner we get rid of coal all together the better.

Cliff

I have edited my post as the 6% was the contribution of electricity on that day by Drax.

The Dude

We did a school tour around Drax in 88/89, the gas turbines they use as backup generators are the same Rolls Royce units as used in Concorde.